“Clara” | A performance-concert inspired by the life and work of German pianist and composer Clara Schumann (1819–1896)

“CLARA” | A PERFORMANCE-CONCERT INSPIRED BY THE LIFE AND WORK OF GERMAN PIANIST AND COMPOSER CLARA SCHUMANN (1819–1896)

NOVEMBER 26, 6 PM

A performance-concert about the life, work, and love of the exceptional German pianist and composer Clara Schumann

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Concept and script by GUODA GEDVILAITĖ and BIRUTĖ MAR
Director – BIRUTĖ MAR
Choreographer and Assistant Director – SIGITA MIKALAUSKAITĖ
Set Designer – INDRĖ PAČĖSAITĖ
Video Projection Designer – MARIUS VILČINSKAS
Lighting Designer – AUDRIUS JANKAUSKAS

Performed by BIRUTĖ MAR

Pianist – GUODA GEDVILAITĖ

Duration – 1 hour 20 minutes.

“Clara” is a performance-concert combining music and theatre, telling the life story of the renowned German composer and pianist Clara Schumann (1819–1896).

Legends surround Clara Schumann’s life. The daughter of Friedrich Wieck, a strict and renowned piano teacher of his time, Clara Josephine Wieck displayed exceptional musical talent from an early age. She began performing in public and composing at age eleven. By the age of nineteen, she was already a celebrated pianist, giving concerts throughout Germany, Austria, and France. Clara became one of the few women in Europe at the time to pursue a professional career as a concert pianist.

Soon after, Clara married the young composer Robert Schumann. At her husband’s urging, she attempted to give up her career as a pianist and devote herself to her family, eventually having eight children. Fate would bring another great composer into their lives: Johannes Brahms, who fell in love with Clara, fourteen years his senior.

Like Alice in Wonderland, Clara journeys through worlds of music and love, surrounded by eight children and her husband Robert Schumann, a brilliant and dreamlike composer, while at the same time struggling to remain faithful to her own calling and continue her demanding concert career.

In the performance-concert, Clara Schumann’s story unfolds through works by Clara and Robert Schumann, performed by pianist Guoda Gedvilaitė, as well as fragments from the letters and diaries of Clara and Robert Schumann and recollections of their contemporaries. These texts have been translated into Lithuanian for the first time and are performed by actress Birutė Mar.

In the world of music, pianist Guoda Gedvilaitė is often referred to as the “Lithuanian Clara Schumann.”

“Clara” is a story about a talented woman caught between creativity and family, love and duty, personal calling and the roles imposed upon her by society. The performance invites audiences to take a fresh look at the life and music of one of the most remarkable female artists of the 19th century.

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More information about the performance and photographs can be found on our website:

https://soloteatras.lt/performances/clara/?lang=en

BIRUTĖ MARCINKEVIČIŪTĖ – MAR

Actress, director, writer, playwright, and Artistic Director of SOLO THEATRE. Born in 1969 in Kaunas, Lithuania. From 1988 to 1993, she studied at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre, Music and Cinema Institute, graduating as a theatre and film actress and director. In 1997–1998, she studied traditional Japanese Noh theatre and Nihon Buyo dance in Tokyo.

Since 1998, Birutė Mar has created original theatre, literature and music projects, chamber performances and internationally acclaimed solo performances. Her work has been presented in more than thirty countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas, receiving awards at Lithuanian and international theatre festivals.

In 2018, Birutė Mar founded SOLO THEATRE, where she serves as Artistic Director. She directs performances, writes plays and screenplays, and performs in her own productions. She has also published ten books of poetry, essays, and prose for children.

In 2014, she received an award from the International Theatre Institute (ITI) and the Fujairah International Theatre Festival for her contribution to the development of solo theatre. In 2020, she was awarded the Lithuanian Government’s Culture and Arts Prize for her contribution to Lithuanian culture and arts.