The Grand Celebration of Musicians 2026

The Grand Celebration of Musicians 2026

Marking World Music Day, the Grand Celebration of Musicians will bring Golden Disc award winners, opera soloists, instrumentalists, choirs, orchestras and young musicians together on one stage. This year’s celebration honours the 90th anniversary of the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union and the 95th anniversary of Muzikos barai, the journal of musical art and scholarship.

The festive concert will feature organ, choral and chamber music, opera arias and jazz compositions. The two-part programme promises familiar favourites, musical discoveries and surprises.

During the celebration, we will honour the 2026 Golden Disc award winners. This year’s lifetime achievement award goes to Lina Naikelienė. The other recipients are organist Jurgita Kazakevičiūtė, opera soloist Viktorija Miškūnaitė, jazz vocalist Veronika ChiChi and the Panevėžys Musical Theatre Wind Orchestra “Garsas”, led by Martynas Bražas. Join us in congratulating the winners!

The concert features Golden Disc award winners from 2013–2026 and special guests:

• Opera soloists Justina Gringytė, Kristian Benedikt (Vaidas Vyšniauskas), Viktorija Miškūnaitė and Rita Petrauskaitė.
• Instrumentalists: organist Jurgita Kazakevičiūtė; birbynė players Egidijus Ališauskas and Vytautas Kiminius; pianists Daumantas Kirilauskas, Audronė Juozauskaitė and Paulius Zdanavičius; and violinists Rūta Lipinaitytė and Dovydas Čiplys.
• Jazz musicians Veronika ChiChi, Dmitrijus Golovanovas, Janas Maksimovičius and Vytis Nivinskas.
• The “Ąžuoliukas” Boys’ and Young Men’s Choir (director Vytautas Miškinis), the “Musica humana” ensemble (artistic director Robertas Beinaris) and the Vilnius Sacred Music Choir “Adoramus” (director Dr Imantas Jonas Šimkus).
• The “TOP” Cello Ensemble of Kaunas Juozas Naujalis Music Gymnasium (director Asta Krištaponienė) and a cello quintet featuring Ramutė Kalnėnaitė, Marius Sakavičius, Kasparas Šerpytis, Viltė Dobilaitė and Julius Jonušas.
• The Alytus Music School Symphony Orchestra “Svajonė” and the Panevėžys Musical Theatre Wind Orchestra “Garsas”.

Organ music by Jean Langlais and excerpts from Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria will provide a majestic opening to the concert. The festive programme will include a medley of Lithuanian patriotic songs, chamber works and opera arias. The expressive sound of the cello will come to the fore in Mantas Šidlauskas’s Glass Planet and Verdiana, based on themes from La traviata—an opera of particular significance to Lithuania’s operatic history—and arranged for five cellos at the initiative of David Geringas. The jazz musicians will perform works by Veronika Čičinskaitė-Golovanova, John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Vytautas Kiminius and Justina Gringytė will appear with the Alytus Music School Symphony Orchestra “Svajonė”, while Kristian Benedikt and Viktorija Miškūnaitė will perform with the Panevėžys Musical Theatre Wind Orchestra “Garsas”.

The celebration’s grand finale will feature George Frideric Handel’s Hallelujah chorus, a tradition since the first Grand Parade of Musicians in 1997. It will be performed by the Panevėžys Musical Theatre Wind Orchestra “Garsas” and the Vilnius Sacred Music Choir “Adoramus”.

And, continuing the tradition begun by Virgilijus Noreika in 1997, we will all join together to sing Luigi Denza’s Funiculì, Funiculà.