The special album by Bel Canto Choir Vilnius. Live from St. Catherine Church in Vilnius

During the cultural festival Culture Night on July 5, 2013, the Bel Canto Choir Vilnius presented a social-cultural project – a special concert entitled Wake up, Europe. The night is over…! The concert, dedicated to Lithuania’s first Presidency of the Council of the European Union and organized in partnership with European Commission Representation in Lithuania, featured some of the most beautiful European music performed by the Choir and its friends – well-known and prominent Lithuanian musicians – and provided Lithuania’s EU Presidency with a bright, sonorous and elegant opening touch.

The Bel Canto Choir Vilnius concert was filmed in HD, recorded live in Surround Sound, and was released on DVD/CD, as well published on iTunes and Amazon.

The concert featured 60 singers of the Bel Canto Choir Vilnius, the internationally renowned Lithuanian mezzo soprano Ieva Prudnikovaitė, the pianist and jazz virtuoso Artūras Anusauskas and the violinist Artūras Šilalė, the Vilnius Percussion Group (artistic director Saulius Auglys), the piper Vytautas Linkevičius, as well as young classical music talents Lina Dambrauskaitė and Milda Baronaitė.

The special concert of Bel Canto Choir Vilnius and its Friends delivered several great surprises. For the first time in Lithuania, the choir presented a renowned classical piece Bolero by Maurice Ravel, and a passionate Greek Sirtaki, specially arranged for Bel Canto Choir Vilnius, three soloist, piano and percussion group by composer Vladimiras Konstantinovas. Sirtaki ended the performance and symbolized the beginning EU Presidency of Greece, which was transferred from Lithuania at the end of 2013.

The concert also featured such a classic symbol of European culture as Johann Sebastian Bach’s chorale Jesus bleibet meine Freude from the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben BWV 147; an extraordinary motet O Salutaris Hostia by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds; the temperamental and passionate Spanish habaneras; the legendary song Hijo de la Luna by composer and painter José María Cano de Andrés; Edvard Grieg’s Solveig’s Song from the music for Henrik Ibsen’s drama Peer Gynt, and others.

Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Bel Canto Choir Vilnius: Artūras Dambrauskas. Choirmasters: Raminta Gocentienė, Alfredas Celiešius and Simona Vitkauskienė.

Credits

Artistic Director of the Concert: Artūras Dambrauskas; Executive Producer: Audrius Valatkevičius; Video Producer: Vytautas Drazdauskas; Director of Photography: Šarūnas Burža; Lightening Design: Mykolas Lėckas; Video Editor: Jonas Juozapaitis; Recording Director: Vilius Keras.