07 02 18:00 Church of St Johns (Šv. Jono Street 12, Vilnius) | free admission

The Kanklės music concert “Let the Kanklės Play”, a part of the Lithuanian Son Celebration’s program since 1998, will be a spectacle made by 500 players from all over Lithuania. This string folk instrument is paid a special kind of attention in the Song Celebration: the tradition of playing kanklės dates back to the 15th–18th centuries, and the instrument’s origins are tied to the faith of our ancestors.

The concert “Let the Kanklės Play” will celebrate the most important historic development moments in the ensembles playing kanklės in Lithuania. The audience will hear the new traditions of playing the instrument in the making, based on the history of the Lithuanian kanklės that were adopted by stylised folk ensembles in the beginning of the last century.

The event program comprises of performances by ensembles playing both the traditional Lithuanian regional and the concert kanklės. The regional features of the traditional kanklės will be showcased by the ensembles playing repertoire of the traditional kanklės of Aukštaitija, Samogitia, Klaipėda and Suvalkija Regions. The jewel of the program is the performance of the Skriaudžiai Ensemble “Kanklės” from the Veiveriai Culture and Leisure Centre, which is the oldest group of kanklės players in Lithuania. The performance of concert kanklės ensembles, bringing together players from music and art schools, conservatoires and the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, will be covering the classics of the genre and pieces by contemporary authors.

A significant element of the program is a sincere form of intergenerational music-making, which symbolises the formula of transmitting the kanklės playing traditions: student – teacher – performer. It is the core idea of the concert to cover the perspectives of the tradition of Lithuanian kanklės as well as playing and safeguarding them.