PATTERNS / CHORDOS QUARTET / CYCLE “WHO AM I?”
Event information
Award-winning Chordos String Quartet, laureate of the Lithuanian Government’s Culture and Arts Prize, invites you to the third program of its new concert cycle “Who am I?” – “PATTERNS”.
Who am I?
What shapes our identity – the shadows of ancient myths and traditions, or present-day experiences intertwined with long-settled echoes of the past? Are we truly unique, or more alike than we imagine?
The Chordos String Quartet – one of the country’s longest-standing performers of contemporary music and laureate of the 2024 Lithuanian Government Culture and Arts Award – invites you to join them in seeking answers to these questions. Their new concert cycle, Who am I?, is a musical journey into the human inner world, where past and present experiences, cultural reflections, trials endured, and inner discoveries weave together into the fabric of our identity. A fabric in which uniqueness meets our shared human experience, and a mature sense of self gains a voice – at times quietly intimate like a letter, at times resonating boldly in a shared dialogue.
The programmes feature some of the latest and most significant works of the string quartet and chamber repertoire, including two world premieres, with most pieces being performed live in Lithuania for the first time. Chordos will also explore unusual sonic spaces together with exceptional guest artists: the young and talented harpist Liucilė Vilimaitė; their long-time friend and stage partner, saxophonist Liudas Mockūnas; and his colleague from France, electric guitar virtuoso Marc Ducret, who has created a brand-new work especially for this project.
PATTERNS – The Voice of Identity
The concert cycle Who Am I? explores the inner world of the human being — how identity emerges, takes shape, and finds expression. The first two programs, Threads and Fabric, traced the origins of identity and revealed how our inner world is woven from memory, experience, intuition, and internal tensions. These elements formed a multilayered tapestry in which logic intertwined with intuition, and personal experiences merged with universal human emotion.
The third program, Patterns, becomes the culmination of this journey. Here, three distinct musical identities — the electric guitar, the saxophone, and the string quartet — converge to reveal a sound world in which different voices do not merely coexist but transform one another. These patterns are born not only from shared musical ground but also from constant searching: how to make sound speak anew, how instruments can become each other’s echo, extension, or counterpoint.
This program features a new work written especially for CHORDOS, Liudas Mockūnas, and Marc Ducret. It brings together the duo’s long-standing language of freedom and improvisation with the rich timbral palette of the string quartet. Instead of focusing on traditional notions of melody or harmony, the music dives into the texture of sound itself — dense, fragile, fragmented, saturated, ever-shifting.
The result is music that invites the listener to hear not only the notes but also what lies between them: microtextures, hidden energies, sudden tensions, and the quiet seams where sounds intersect. Written material blends with improvisation; time stretches, contracts, vibrates; and the sonic fabric is shaped in real time.
This is not only a performance — it is an encounter between identities, a dialogue that leaves traces, lines, and patterns.
Program:
Marc Ducret (b. 1957). LETTERS (2025, world premiere)
Music for string quartet, electric guitar, and saxophone
I. Stolen letter
II. Letter never sent
III. Letter never received
IV. Letter never written
V. Letter lost
Composer’s note on LETTERS:
A few years ago, a French string quartet asked me to write music for electric guitar and strings which could relate to Alban Berg’s Lyrical Suite, which they intended to perform in the same program.
The Suite is a monument in the history of string quartet music, but it is also filled with cryptic allusions to Berg’s love affair with Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, a married woman Berg had fallen in love with. As I was reading Berg’s letters to her, I realized she probably never answered his passionate letters. So Berg was probably the only character in that “love affair” which involved only him, and he never saw her again after.
When Liudas Mockūnas and I thought about playing with the Chordos String Quartet, I wrote more music and developments and organized it as a series of imaginary letters which never reached their recipient: one was stolen, one was lost, one was never written, one was never sent…
Such an unusual instrumentation is quite rare and can provide amazing tone variations: the electric guitar, sometimes distorted but kept at a low volume, creates unheard soundscapes when mixed with acoustic instruments; and the contrabass clarinet adds its dark timbre to the ensemble.
My long collaboration with Liudas in various bands, duos, trios, large ensembles, etc., allows us to improvise in and out of the composed frame that the quartet provides, making this piece a new experiment in sound and musical expression. (Marc Ducret)
Visual identity: Kristina Pavlovaitė
Lighting design: Justas Bø
Organised by: PI „Muzikos ruduo“, PI "Improdimensija"
Funded by: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality
Partners: Lithuanian Composers’ Union, Music Information Centre Lithuania, Radio Vilnius, Liustrai
Concert partner: Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum
Important information
The event may be filmed and photographed. By attending, you agree that photos and video material featuring your image may be publicly shared and used for the promotion of the event or the organizer.
For any questions, please contact: media@chordosquartet.lt
About performer
https://nobusinessrecords.com/liudas-mockunas.html
MARC DUCRET – electric guitar
https://www.marcducret.com/
CHORDOS String Quartet
Ieva Sipaitytė – violin I
Vaida Paukštienė – violin II
Robertas Bliškevičius – viola
Povilas Jacunskas – violoncello
For 28 years, the Chordos String Quartet has been an active force on the Lithuanian music scene. In 2024, the ensemble was honored with the Lithuanian Government’s Culture and Art Award and continues to uphold its mission: to promote and disseminate the latest works by Lithuanian composers both in Lithuania and abroad, as well as to introduce exceptional contemporary works by international composers to Lithuanian audiences.
Chordos is perhaps the only performing ensemble in Lithuania dedicated to contemporary music that reveals the full diversity of today’s musical expression, while also exploring its origins, development, and potential future directions.
Constantly seeking new forms and modes of expression, and collaborating extensively with composers and fellow performers, Chordos fulfils an educational role – fostering contemporary music appreciation at home while representing Lithuanian music internationally. With a unique and distinctive repertoire unmatched by any other active ensemble in the contemporary music field, Chordos remains one of the most compelling and celebrated interpreters of nowadays music in Lithuania.
About event organizer
„Muzikos ruduo“, VŠĮ
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