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Concert

Songs by Giulio Caccini and his contemporaries

08/08/2024
Photo by Gediminas Gražys

RENATA DUBINSKAITĖ – voice

VAIVA EIDUKAITYTĖ-STORASTIENĖ – harpsichord

 

 

On 8 August, in the Great Hall of the Sapieha Palace, songs by Italian composer Giulio Caccini (c. 1550-1618) and his contemporaries will be performed by mezzo-soprano Renata Dubinskaitė and harpsichordist Vaiva Eidukaitytė-Storastienė. 

 

Caccini was an influential composer of the late Renaissance-early Baroque period, who made a significant contribution to one of the most significant revolutions in the history of music – the emergence of solo vocal music, known as monody, at a time when polyphony was the dominant form of music. In 1601, in Florence, Caccini published Le Nuove Musiche (The New Music), which introduced a new musical style. The works in this collection present the poetic text in a single singing voice and an instrumental accompaniment called basso continuo, in which all the voices of the polyphony are brought together in chords. The monody makes extensive use of various ornaments and rhetorical devices to express the meaning of the text and strong emotional states. The new style of music soon became established, laid the foundations for the emergence of opera and became the precursor of the song genre. 

 

The concert will include works by Caccini’s daughters, Francesca and Settimia Caccini, as well as his contemporaries C. Monteverdi, S. Landi, G. Frescobaldi, G. G. Kapsberger and T. Merula.

 

The event starts at 18:30, with access to the Great Hall from 18:15, but concert-goers can arrive earlier and visit the contemporary art exhibition “Refuge” at the Palace.  

RENATA DUBINSKAITĖ

 

Mezzo-soprano Renata Dubinskaitė first studied art history and theory at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, and in 2011 she finished her Phd studies in art history. In 2015 she graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre with a Bachelor’s degree in Solo Singing and in 2023 she completed her Master’s degree at the Vytautas Magnus University Academy of Music under Prof. Vladimir Prudnikov. R. Dubinskaitė is continuously developing her baroque vocal skills in Bologna with Professor Fernardo Cordeiro Opa. 

 

Dubinskaitė is the main soloist of the international early music ensemble “Canto Fiorito”, the producer of this ensemble and the Kretinga Early Music Festival, as well as a singer and concert programmer of the Duo Barocco. In 2023, she founded a new early music ensemble Lux Maris, where she curates early music programmes for various ensembles of performers.

 

In 2021, the singer’s solo disc “Barbara Strozzi. La voce sola” is released by Brilliant Classics (The Netherlands). The critically acclaimed recordings have been broadcast on BBC Radio, France Musique, US and Australian radio programmes. With the ensemble Canto Fiorito she has sung solo recitals and concert programmes in Stockholm, Brussels, Namur, Oslo, Trondheim, Salzburg, Vienna, Brighton, Rostock and other European cities. Since 2019 R. Dubinskaitė has been singing with the Chamber Choir of Namur (Belgium) and the early music ensemble Cappella Mediterranea in opera productions and concerts in prestigious European concert halls, such as the Royal Chapel of Versailles, the Bozar in Brussels, the RadioFrance Hall in Paris, the Auditorium de Lyon and others. She has created numerous roles in various Baroque operas.

 

 

VAIVA EIDUKAITYTĖ-STORASTIENĖ

 

Harpsichordist, organist and pianist Vaiva Eidukaitytė-Storastienė is a graduate of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA), a post-graduate student of art, and a researcher of the art of early music performance. She has studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Musicians’ Support Foundation, and international masterclasses in early music at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, and the Swiss Academy of Music “Schola Cantorum Basiliensis”, France. Eidukaitytė-Storastienė performs extensively in Lithuania and abroad with various chamber and early music ensembles, orchestras, soloists, etc., and regularly participates in festivals such as “Gaida”, “Jauna muzika”, “Kristupo vasara”, “Banchetto musicale”, “Klaipėda Music Spring”, “Europa musicale”, “Didysis musicians parade”, the Thomas Mann Festival in Nida, as well as in other projects of early music. V. Eidukaitytė-Storastienė is a member of the ensemble Affectus, and since 2010 she has been a harpsichordist of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra.