Back to Dreaming

Works by Edvard Grieg and Balys Dvarionas, lights, poetry, memories

A mysterious programme will fill the atmospheric Great Hall of Trakai Castle – a musical impression conceived by pianist Simona Zajančauskaitė, interlaced with the performer’s stories inviting to return to childhood, fairy tales and miracles. The pianist asks when did you see yourself running through the meadows overflown with a sense that you are about to ascend to the sky like a bird? Probably it was yesterday, in your dreams... The concert Back to Dreaming is the memories of the soul carried by music, lights and poetry. The compositions of the Norwegian romanticist Edvard Grieg and the Lithuanian composer Balys Dvarionas evoke images of childhood – the procession of little dwarfs, quips of elves, a waltz with a doll, the whisper of a purling rivulet, a birdsong, longing for home...

Sharing her musical memories this afternoon, pianist Simona Zajančauskaitė is today’s acclaimed performer, a graduate of the N. Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg and the F. Liszt Academy of Music (chamber music) in Weimar (Germany). The pianist’s musical path was also enriched by communication with such masters as professors Mstislav Rostropovich, Lazar Berman, Lev Natochenny, Vera Gornostayeva and Mūza Rubackytė as well as other prominent performers. The pianist performs as a soloist and chamber musician, participates in international festivals, has given concerts in Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, USA, Ukraine, Russia and Estonia. Since 2007, together with her sister violinist Justina Zajančauskaitė she has organised a classical music festival in her native Rokiškis. In 2005–2010, the pianist was a scholarship holder of the M. Rostropovich Support and Charity Foundation “Help for Lithuanian Children”, in 2013–2014 received the Deutschlandstipendium award from the Ernst Freiberger Foundation, and was honoured with President Valdas Adamkus Prize.