“To celebrate the 25th anniversary of my creative activity on stage, I decided to give a chamber music concert to the audience and myself. I am glad that the faithful listeners of the Pažaislis Music Festival will also hear this concert. I am convinced that a chamber music concert is like an X-ray lamp for a performer, illuminating the inner world of the performer, his aesthetics and taste. Here you become your own director, you arrange the programme, you create the narrative of the concert, you rely on your artistic intuition,” says tenor EDGARAS MONTVIDAS about the concert. – This time I chose Robert Schumann’s vocal cycle “The Poet’s Love”, which, by the way, I will also perform at the Berlin Concert Hall next year, Richard Strauss’s songs, and Samuel Barber’s music, which I have touched upon when I was composing the role of Anatoly in the opera “Vanessa” (the LRT audience could see a recording of this opera from the Glyndebourne Festival in the programme “Wintering with Opera”). The famous Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, with whom we were awarded the National Prize, is also writing a vocal cycle especially for this recital! So, THE world premiere awaits.”

The concert will feature the British pianist S. LEPPER, returning to the Pažaislis Festival for the third time, who is a highly appreciated partner of the singers on stage.
Critics have noted that “Simon Lepper, whose pianistic prowess blends with a real sensitivity to word and voice, is a true rarity” (The Times). Among his highlights are an invitation from the prestigious Wigmore Hall (London) to present a three-concert project devoted to the songs of Joseph Marx, and recitals with Stéphane Degout at the Ravinia and Edinburgh Festivals, and at the Bordeaux, Dijon, La Monnaie, Lausanne and Lyon Opera Houses, recitals at Carnegie Hall with Karen Cargill and Sally Matthews, performances of Franz Schubert’s song cycles with Gerald Finley and Mark Padmore, recitals with Christiane Karg at the Frankfurt Opera and the Rheingau Festival, and concerts with Angelika Kirchschlager at the Verbier Festival and Wigmore Hall.