Some of the Lithuanian composers enjoy great success with their choral works worldwide, among them - Jonas Tamulionis and Kristina Vasiliauskaitė. Various Lithuanian choirs often become prizewinners of international choir competitions with the works by Jonas Tamulionis. During past two years, his works were performed in Spain, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Bulgaria, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Canada, USA, Latvia, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, Switzerland, Greece, Denmark, Finland, Belgium; Lacrimosa by Tamulionis was among the obligatory works in the international choir conductors' competition in Riga, Latvia, 2000. In 1999, the San Jose State University Choraliers included Missa Brevis in Honorem Beatae Mariae Virginis by Kristina Vasiliauskaitė in their european tour programme and recorded it on the CD 'Encore'. In 2000, the Quire of Voices choir directed by Nathan Kreitzer performed the above mentioned Missa Brevis and the Christmas Missa Brevis by Vasiliauskaitė in Finland, Sweden and Estonia. In the same year, the Santa Barbara Music Publishing (California, USA) released the CD 'Multi Cultural' with both these works included. Also the Santa Barbara Music Publishing constantly publishes the scores of choral works by Jonas Tamulionis and Kristina Vasiliauskaitė in their Baltic Series.
Mindaugas Urbaitis was the first among Lithuanian composers to publish his works online. Currently there are 16 of his scores available on new scorchmusic.com site powered by Sibelius. Any composer or arranger using Sibelius or Finale can submit his/her music on scorchmusic.com. Visitors can instantly listen to the music, print scores, extract and even transpose parts (Scorch 2 plug-in is needed, available for download). Some of the scores are free, another are charged with modest fees paid by credit card. Visitors can contribute by reviewing and rating scores. There is also lots of information about the composers - theirs bios, photos, links and contacts, so that you could get in touch with them and agree about performing or recording of their works.
Young Lithuanian composers enjoy various opportunities to participate in international composition seminars or to work at artists' residences. To name a few: Raminta Šerkšnytė was invited to participate in the 7th International Young Composers Meeting held on Febr. 25-March 2 in Apeldoorn (The Netherlands) where her composition Basso ostinato was premiered by renowned Dutch ensemble de ereprijs. Vytautas Germanavičius was granted the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursary for creative work at the Banff Centre for the Arts (Alberta, Canada) for the period January-March 2001 (also two of his pieces were performed at the Banff Centre on March 9: Breaking the Sunlight, first performance, and Moving on Crystals). Lately Nomeda Valančiūtė was awarded Brandenburg State Grant for creative work at the Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf (Germany) where she will reside and work for the period of May-August.
Lithuanian Music Link No. 2