This will be the first large-scale international new music gathering in the Baltic Region, and the first ISCM World Music Days in this part of Europe.

The festival has invited composers from all over the world to submit works for this occasion. Two focus composers, Jonathan Harvey (GB) and Peter Eötvös (HU), will be part of an international jury selecting works which underline the chosen festival theme “InBetween”, looking at contemporary music as transit zone and middle ground.

The work of the focus composers will be featured throughout the festival, with the continental premiere of Of Love and Other Demons, a new large-scale opera by Eötvös, in collaboration with the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and the renowned Glyndebourne Opera Festival, and the world premiere of a new work by Harvey for cello octet.

Following the festival theme, ISCM World Music Days / Gaida 2008 will also embrace music projects that are acting as transit zone. Lithuanian foremost female composer Onutė Narbutaitė, also a jury member, has accepted to write a new piece for All Souls' Day (2 November), which will bring together all the choirs of Vilnius and its surroundings to sing the same piece, synchronously, in different streets and on different squares of the city.

To underline the international ambitions of the festival, ISCM World Music Days / Gaida 2008 has for the first time invited an international artistic curator, Lieven Bertels (BE / NL), who made his name starting up the new Concertgebouw venue in Belgium, and currently acts as artistic co-ordinator for the famous Holland Festival (Amsterdam). In line with his fresh approach on what constitutes contemporary music, the festival will welcome multimedia installations, DJ acts and improvised music, and involve the local community, truly bringing the adventurous ISCM spirit into the 21^st Century.

The choice of the ISCM to hold their 2008 meeting in Vilnius confirms the reputation of the rich Baltic music culture of today. Composer such as Bronius Kutavičius, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Arvo Pärt, soloists such as Gidon Kremer or David Geringas and ensembles such as the Latvian Radio Choir, the Kremerata Baltica, the Gaida Ensemble among many others make for a rich mix of styles and approaches on the highest international level. The organisation of this ISCM festival in Lithuania not only is a sound testimony to this reputation, but also a dream running-up event for 2009, when Vilnius will bear the title of Cultural Capital of Europe.

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InBetween - Contemporary music as transit zone and middle ground

An 18^th Birthday to remember…

It’s no coincidence that the Lithuanian contemporary music festival 'Gaida' will celebrate it’s 18^th edition in 2008: a symbolic coming of age for this new-found Baltic cultural identity, which resulted in this new music festival almost immediately after the political independence of the country. Like any eighteen year old, the festival has reached an age of majority that makes it want to fly out into the world. In between youth and wisdom, adolescent playfulness and adult seriousness, looking back to its own past and forward to its –surely international- future…

The Gaida 2008 festival team therefore invites the world of contemporary music at large to celebrate this milestone together in Vilnius in October - November ’08. To mark this occasion the festival will organise this edition as the official ISCM World Music Days 2008.

InBetween - Contemporary music as transit zone and middle ground

The festival theme wants to reflect on the multitude of positions any form of contemporary music can take today in the wider cultural landscape, and on the various ways through which the music of today reaches an audience. Throughout the last decades it has become clear that our contemporary music experiences are no longer to be confined to the concert hall alone, and that this music can share its audience with other artistic output. Moreover it seems that in these days of I-pods and internet radio, classical or contemporary music audiences might not have become bigger, but are certainly coming from a much wider base. 

The ISCM World Music Days 2008 will therefore explore a multitude of ‘musics’ of today, with local and international performers, in the many concert halls, theatres and arts venues of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, hidden treasure of the Baltic, has to offer.

Central in this festival edition will be the music of ISCM members, and of two composers in focus – Jonathan Harvey (with an exciting world première) and Peter Eötvös (both as a conductor and a composer), as well as an exploration of new ways of presenting contemporary music to newfound audiences, trough multimedia, crossover programmes, installations, fringe programmes and interactive web-based content. To its foreign guests the festival wants to offer an outstanding showcase of the rich music life of the Baltic area.

New and newest music

The Gaida Festival, hosting ISCM World Music Days in 2008, is among the younger international new music festivals, and therefore strongly advocates the reaching out for a young audience. Presenting the music of the 20^th and 21^st centuries is one thing, bringing this music into the context of young people’s rich musical experience quite another. Of course we all agree there is no such thing as an ideal new music audience today, so a multitude of options is explored. In its recent editions, the Gaida festival has shown to be at the forefront of this endeavour. To some the vast number of youngsters in Gaida concerts might come as a surprise, but not to the (hip and internationally oriented) incrowd, which seems to have embraced the festival as its own.

Thus Gaida in the past welcomed such remarkable projects as London Sinfonietta meets Warp (a refreshing confrontation of 20C repertoire and electronica DJs from the popular WARP ‘electronica’ record label) or Microwaves (the artistic fusion of Italian ensemble Alter Ego ensemble and Finnish electronica artists Pan Sonic). Other ventures in this direction included an Opera in da House project, with exciting remixes of opera repertoire, the multimedia dance performance Time Line by the young Lithuanian composer Vytautas V. Jurgutis or the One, the quintessential video chamber opera by the young and successful Dutch composer Michel van der Aa, among many others.  

Building on this track record, ISCM World Music Days 2008 want to extend its outward reaching policy by transforming the city of Vilnius into a musical platform for all to enjoy. There will be DJ-performances from a floating ‘island’ in Vilnius’s main shopping mall, giving a fresh look on some ‘New Music Classics’ such as the works of Reich, Glass and Stockhausen. We plan a reworking of Luciano Berio’s classic Laborintus II in which the improvisational element will lead into a jazz concert, followed by a Laborintus party, and we plan to bridge Jonathan Harvey’s quintessential electronic piece Mortuos Plango with the iPod generation trough a multimedia installation.

The World Music Days 2008 in Vilnius will have a multi-layered programme in order to assure cultural and social variety of events. The programme will consist of several large scale projects, including music theatre. There will also be symphonic, vocal, choral, and chamber music concerts, interdisciplinary and multimedia events, sound installations, and an extensive programme of academic and educational events.

Example of some of the large scale projects:

Guest composers: British Jonathan Harvey and Hungarian Peter Eötvös:

-          continental premiere of Peter Eötvös’ opera Of Love and Other Demons, co-produced with the Glyndebourne Opera Festival (GB)

-          new commission from Jonathan Harvey – co-production with the Conjunto Iberico Cello Octet

-          signature concerts by the guest composers of the festival

Special projects by Ensemble Modern (Germany) and Ensemble InterContemporain (France, tbc.)

Possible ‘Transit’ projects:

- special project by Onutė Narbutaitė: All Souls Day / music for the city

- Symposion – special contemporary music ‘table’ programme

- sound installation Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco by Jonathan Harvey

- Laborintus II: Luciano Berio/60s jazz/DJ Porcini

Possible Educational projects:

- International academy Sonic Boom: Towards the Music of the 21^st Century

- Creative workshop Interdisciplinary Sound Laboratory

- Multimedia exhibition Lithuanian Music Stations of the 20^th Century

- Cinema programme The Beginnings of Music

- Musical Promenade for children and youth

Full program to be announced in the course of 2008.

ISCM Call for works and projects

For the World Music Days 2008, a call for works and projects has been announced on behalf of ISCM, with participants from 58 ISCM member sections. An international jury will select more than 50 scores and projects from all over the world, which will be performed during the Festival. The jury includes Peter Eötvös, Jonathan Harvey, Luca Francesconi, Onutė Narbutaitė, Helena Tulve, composers from 5 regions of Europe. Deadline for submissions is July 31, 2007, and the selection by the jury will be carried out by the end of October, 2007.

Focus on Jonathan Harvey

The music of British composer Jonathan Harvey of course hardly needs introducing. On the forefront of European new music for decades, Harvey is among the most widely played composers of today, with a vast repertoire of vocal, orchestral, solo, and ensemble pieces, as well as music for the stage and electronic music.

Although Jonathan Harvey is currently working on his biggest undertaking so far, an opera about the last days of Richard Wagner’s life, soon to be staged in Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna and Luxemburg, he has accepted one special commission for the Gaida festival. Mr. Harvey will write a work to receive it’s world première at Gaida 2008, for the world-renown cello octet Conjunto Ibérico. This highly specialised ensemble has premièred works by composers like Kagel, Berio and Xenakis, all written specially for them, so this first performance of the new work by Mr. Harvey will certainly be an event to remember !

Together with the composer, the ISCM World Music Days / Gaida festival is currently planning a 2-week long homage that will present a rich and balanced overview on the works of Mr. Harvey’s oeuvre that will include pivotal works such as Songs from Li Po and Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco, the latter being presented as a permanent installation. Harvey’s lasting interest in spirituality combined with his open-minded approach will lead us on a musical voyage from the Tibetan heights to the cathedrals of England.

As part of this celebration, Jonathan Harvey has agreed to participate actively in the Gaida Festival. This will take the form of lectures, workshops, coaching of the performers and taking part in the jury for the ISCM selection.

  Focus on Peter Eötvös

Peter Eötvös is among the most prolific composers of his generation. Since his time with the Ensemble InterContemporain he is also recognised as one of the finest conductors of today’s music. The ISCM World Music Days / Gaida Festival invites Mr. Eötvös to show both aspects of his career in a unique overview.

In a day where composers seldom have the chance to write for the stage, the opera repertoire of Peter Eötvös is outstanding not only in quantity, but of course in quality as well, as recognised by his peers and music lovers alike. Three Sisters, Le Balcon and more recently Angels in America have quickly become part of the larger repertoire, with performances in leading opera houses all-over the world including in Paris, New York, Lyon, and Amsterdam.

The Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre is currently planning to co-produce an important new opera production with our colleagues from the prestigious Glyndebourne opera festival (UK). Mr. Eötvös is writing his new opera based on Of Love and Other Demons, a novel by Gabriel García Márquez, a tragic love story, set in the 18th century, evoking the colonial era in Spanish American history. This production would receive it’s continental première at ISCM World Music Days / Gaida Festival, immediately after its Glyndebourne run.

Be it for solo instrument with ensemble accompaniment, for voice or for large-scale orchestra, Peter Eötvös is building a vast repertoire of pieces that seem to have a remarkable pan-European spirit. This of course might have to do with his geographical omnipresence as a conductor of leading orchestras and new music ensembles, and his wide range of educational activities. For ISCM World Music Days 2008, Mr. Eötvös had agreed to conduct a wide range of ensembles throughout, including Ensemble Modern and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, in a wide range of music, including of course his own work, and composers selected in the ISCM World Music Festival framework.

  Commission for Onutė Narbutaitė

The festival has commissioned an exciting new work from the Lithuanian composer Onutė Narbutaitė, who will write a piece for All Souls' Day (2 November, a day which brings a very special atmosphere to Vilnius). The piece will gather together all the choirs of Vilnius and its surroundings to sing the same music, synchronously, in different streets and on different squares of the city, to surprise festival goers and general public alike with an original musical soundscape.  

  Gaida Festival: a warm welcome to the Baltic music life of the 21^st Century

The World Music Days in Vilnius would be the first festival in the history of the ISCM held in Lithuania and the Baltic countries. This region is rich in outstanding creative personalities that made a strong influence on the development of the music history in the 20^th c. and shaped the creative scene of the region. Looking from a distance, only twinkle of the brightest stars can be seen, but as you approach closer, the whole constellation comes into view, making a much stronger impression. Like many countries of the world, the small countries of the Baltic region have always respected local identity and creative individuality, fostering the peaceful coexistence of most diverse creative platforms, and encouraging openness and cooperation. 

For the ISCM World Music Days the best performers of the Baltic region will be engaged: excellent choirs of the region (Latvian Radio Chamber Singers), ensembles (Gaida Ensemble, Čiurlionis Quartet, Vilnius Quartet), orchestras (Kremerata Baltica, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra), early music groups, as well as non-traditional ensembles and collectives, sound artists and DJs. 

      biographies

Jonathan Harvey

Born in Warwickshire in 1939, Jonathan Harvey was a chorister at St Michael's College, Tenbury and later a major music scholar at St John's College, Cambridge. He gained doctorates from the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge and also studied privately (on the advice of Benjamin Britten) with Erwin Stein and Hans Keller. He was a Harkness Fellow at Princeton (1969-70).

An invitation from Boulez to work at IRCAM in the early 1980s has resulted in eight realisations at the Institute, or for the Ensemble IntercContemporain, including the tape piece Mortuos Plango Vivos Voco, Bhakti for ensemble and electronics, Ritual Melodies for computer-manipulated sounds, and Advaya for cello and live and pre-recorded sounds. Harvey has also composed for most other genres: orchestra (including Madonna of Winter and Spring, Tranquil Abiding and White as Jasmine), chamber (including four String Quartets, Soleil Noir/Chitra, and Death of Light, Light of Death, for instance) as well as works for solo instruments. He has produced a large output of choral works, including the large cantata with electronics Mothers shall not Cry (2000). His church opera Passion and Resurrection (l981) was the subject of a BBC television film, and has received twelve subsequent performances. His opera Inquest of Love, commissioned by ENO, was premiered there in 1993 and repeated at Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels in 1994. His opera Wagner Dream, a co-production of the Grand Théâtre in Luxemburg, the Dutch National Opera and the IRCAM, Paris, will premiere this summer.

Harvey now attracts commissions from many international organisations. His music has been extensively played and toured by, amongst others, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble InterContemporain, Asko, Nieuw Ensemble (Amsterdam) and Ictus Ensemble (Brussels). About 80 recordings are available on CD. He is regularly performed at all the major international contemporary music festivals, and is one of the most skilled and imaginative composers working in electronic music. He has honorary doctorates from the universities of Southampton and Bristol, is a Member of Academia Europaea, and in 1993 was awarded the prestigious Britten Award for composition. He published two books in 1999, on inspiration and spirituality respectively. Arnold Whittall’s study of his music appeared, published by Faber & Faber (and in French by IRCAM) in the same year. Two years later John Palmer published a substantial study: Jonathan Harvey's Bhakti (Edwin Mellen Press). Harvey was Professor of Music at Sussex University for 18 years, where he is now Honorary Professor of Music. He is Professor Emeritus of Music at Stanford University, California (Professor 1995-2000), and a Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He is Composer-in-Residence at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Peter Eötvös

Composer, conductor and teacher: the Hungarian Peter Eötvös (b.1944) combines all three functions in one very high-profile career. He was born in Transylvania, received diplomas from Budapest Academy of Music (composition) and Hochschule für Musik in Cologne (conducting). Between 1968 and 1976 he performed regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble. From 1971 to 1979 he collaborated with the electronic music studio of the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne.

In 1978, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he conducted the inaugural concert of IRCAM in Paris, and was subsequently named musical director of the Ensemble InterContemporain, a post he held until 1991.

His music is regularly featured in the programmes of orchestras, contemporary music ensembles and festivals worldwide; and as composer/conductor he has led projects focusing on his work in centres such as Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Lisbon. His most recent operas, Le Balcon and Angels in America, are following the lead of his Three Sisters by generating an ever-increasing number of new productions; and several major music theatre commissions are due in the next few years.

In addition to his roles listed above, Peter Eötvös continues to be regularly re-invited as guest conductor by orchestras including Berlin Philharmonic; Munich Philharmonic; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Ensemble InterContemporain; BBC Symphony; London Sinfonietta; Netherlands Radio Philharmonic; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Principal Guest Conductor, Modern and Contemporary Repertoire: Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

Equally important to Peter Eötvös are his teaching activities - especially his work at the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe and at his own Contemporary Music Foundation for young conductors and composers in Budapest. Amongst the many honours he has been awarded are the Kossuth Prize, by the President of the Hungarian Republic in 2002; and the ’Commandeur de l`Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ in 2003 by the French minister of education and cultural affairs.

Onutė Narbutaitė

Onutė Narbutaitė (b. 1956) is one of the leading Lithuanian composers. Onutė Narbutaitė has acquired some fundamentals of composition from Bronius Kutavičius, and in 1979 she graduated from the Lithuanian State Conservatoire (present the Academy of Music and Theatre) where she studied composition with Prof. Julius Juzeliūnas. In 1979-1982 she lectured music theory and history at the faculties of the Lithuanian State Conservatoire in Klaipėda, and since 1982 she has lived and worked in Vilnius as a freelance composer.

Onutė Narbutaitė’ works are regularly featured at many concerts and festivals in Lithuania and abroad, among them at the festivals Baltisk Musikfestival (Stockholm, 1991, 1992), Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (1992), Helsinki Festival (1992), Musikhøst (Odense, 1992), A-DEvantgarde (Munich, 1993), Warszawska Jesien (1994, 1997), Spurensuche (Heidelberg, 1994), De Suite Muziekweek (Amsterdam, 1995), Artgenda 96 (Copenhagen), Kaustinen XX Chamber Music Week (1998), Frau musica nova (Cologne, 1998), Europäisches Musikfest Münsterland (1999), Frankfurter Festtage der Musik (Frankfurt an der Oder, 2000, 2004), young.euro.classic (Berlin, 2002), Aboa musica (Turku, 2003, guest composer), MaerzMusik (Berlin, 2003), Icebreaker II: Baltic Voices (Seattle, 2004, 2006), Klangspuren (Tyrol, 2004), ISCM World Music Days (Bern, 2004), contemporary music series Musica Viva (Munich, 2005), and other festivals and concerts in many European countries as well as in Canada and Japan. The composer was twice awarded the prize for the best symphonic work of the year (for Tres Dei Matris Symphoniae in 2004, and for La barca in 2005). In 1997 she was awarded the National Prize for the oratorio Centones meae urbi (Patchwork for My City) for two soloists, mixed choir and orchestra. In the meantime, the composer is focused on a new large-scale commission - a symphonic work to be premiered at the 50th anniversary of the "Warsaw Autumn" festival in 2007.

Onutė Narbutaitė is one of the rather few contemporary composers, whose music bears a mark of extraordinary individuality and remains recognisable from the very first bars of each composition. Like many compositions created by the generation of Lithuanian 'neo-romanticist' composers, the composer's early opuses abounded in images of 'night', 'silence', 'oblivion', unhurried flow, transparent textures and nostalgic moods.

However, from the outset Narbutaitė's music was noted for certain features that distinguished her from contemporary fellow composers. Along with a wide range of various states, moods and emotions, Narbutaitė's entire work is noted for a sense of aristocratic measure and strong compositional discipline, which only enhances the emotional impact of her music. The rationality of composition here is expressed by meticulously detailed textures, exact proportions of smaller and larger sections and the overall form, and understated interplay of minute details. The abstract musical narrative is extremely expressive, prominent and often reminiscent of 'something familiar'.

Lithuanian Composers’ Union / ISCM Lithuanian Section

The Lithuanian Composers’ Union was established in 1941. Despite quite a large diversity of the contemporary music scene, the Lithuanian Composers’ Union remains the sole important initiator and coordinator of various activities and projects in this field. It unites the organisers of the leading international festivals – the largest Gaida Festival (held in Vilnius since 1991), the festival of electronic music and multimedia Jauna muzika (organized since 1992 in Vilnius), contemporary music festivals Iš arti (since 1996 in Kaunas), Permainų muzika (since 2005 in Klaipėda), Druskomanija (since 1985 in Druskininkai), Marių klavyrai (since 1991 in Klaipėda), and others.

The ISCM Lithuanian Section and the Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre founded by the Lithuanian Composers’ Union occupy an important place in developing international projects. The international dimension of collaboration is also maintained by the Musicologists’ Section operating at the Lithuanian Composers’ Union, whose basic priority is the spread and promotion of Lithuanian music and the development of regional partnerships.

The ISCM Lithuanian Section was established in 1937, and renewed its membership in 1989 with the primary mission of being an initiator of international collaboration in the frames of the ISCM. Since 2001 it coordinates the international programs of the contemporary music festival “Iš arti”, giving priority to the long-term exchange projects with the ISCM national sections. Thanks to these initiatives, new music from Ukraine, Canada, Taiwan, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, USA and Japan has been presented in Lithuania.

The founders of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) in 1922 were united by their concern for the promotion of new music and the understanding of their mission, not devoid of utopianism. Since the time when Arnold Schönberg founded the “Society for Private Musical Performances“, and his contemporaries Béla Bartók, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud and others – the ISCM, the world of contemporary music has changed beyond recognition. However, no matter how the situation of contemporary composers and the institutional structure of contemporary music may differ from the context of their predecessors, the ISCM members have inherited their imperatives – to collaborate and to renew.

Lieven Bertels

Lieven Bertels is artistic coordinator for the Holland Festival (Amsterdam, The Netherands), overlooking the music programme and its dramaturgy.

Having graduated in Musicology at the University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1993, Lieven Bertels received a Master of Arts in Composition at the Univ. of Durham (UK) the following year. He briefly worked for BBC Scotland and Decca Records Ltd., returning to Belgium to become lecturer and later head of the Audio Dept. of the Brussels Film, Radio and TV School RITS. He engaged in PhD research on Musical Mimesis in Recording (Univ. of Surrey, UK) while becoming producer at the Belgian Classical Radio "Klara". Since October 2001, he was artistic director of the Concertgebouw Brugge. This arts centre was purposely built for the festival "Bruges 2002 Cultural Capital of Europe" and from the start served a broad and original mix of art forms, welcoming resident artists among which Philharmonia London, violinist Viktoria Mullova, London Sinfonietta, Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Danel String Quartet, DJ Eavesdropper and VJ Collective Visual Kitchen…  Alongside these anchor points, under Mr. Bertels the Concertgebouw offered an exquisite selection of contemporary music and scenic art, including visits by Heiner Goebbels, Sasha Waltz, Herbie Hancock and Meg Stuart.

Since he left Bruges in 2004, Lieven Bertels has taken pride in helping to re-establish the Holland Festival music programming for which this now 60 year old festival used to be famous, trying to find a rich mix of state of the art contemporary music, opera, music theatre, dance with other art forms, often developing novel ways of presenting the arts to the ever more discerning public of today. Audience and press alike took note when the festival created a number of parallel programming ‘brands’ called EarFuel and EyeFuel.

Mr Bertels has accepted to act as guest curator for the ISCM World Music Days / Gaida Festival in addition to his work for the Holland Festival.

Personally, Lieven Bertels holds a strong interest in the history and actual state of electronic music and music technology, academic or other, and in the artist-driven use of advanced technology in performing arts in general. Besides he has a soft spot for traditional Cuban Salsa dancing.