Wednesday, May 11, 7 p.m. In the sound recording studio of the Lithuanian National Cultural Center (known as the Vilnius record studio, Barboras Radvilaitės st. 8) the latest recording publication “Polilogai” by Liudas Mockūnas will be presented. The solidly released album features a program of recordings of contemporary academic music matured over fifteen years, in which solo saxophones and clarinets are played by one Liudas Mockūnas, one of the most famous saxophonists in the country.
Liudas Mockūnas is probably known by many as a performer, pedagogue and composer with a unique style, who manifests himself in the fields of free improvisational music and avant-garde jazz. However, from the time of his studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater (which he graduated exactly twenty years ago), the activity of a performer of contemporary academic music, or more precisely, an improvising interpreter, was no less important in his creative path. Having debuted on the Lithuanian jazz scene at the age of twelve in 1988, he is one of the most active and prominent Lithuanian musicians of his generation, well-known in international waters as well, during his rich career he worked with many jazz and classical orchestras, ensembles, soloists, projects as a soloist, leader, partner, a generator of ideas or a dynamic element of the collective. In Liud’s own words, “free improvisation and contemporary classics have always been next to each other on my path, forming a common approach and understanding of music performance. It not only merges different genres of music, but also blurs the lines between improvisation and interpretation. Academic musical tradition and free improvisation, recorded and unrecorded music are to me like two communicating vessels, rooms of one and the same house.”
His new album “Polilogai” is a great proof that for polyglot musicians, these stereotypically drawn boundaries are only conditional, easily surmountable divides. This is also confirmed by Liud’s cooperation with contemporary composers who created or adapted music specifically for him and had to adapt to his specific manner of performance and tendency to improvisational self-expression, to give him more freedom within the framework of his compositions. After the stagnation of the pandemic and the revision of the repertoire, it was possible to select ten compositions recorded during live performances in concert halls or recording sessions from 2005 to 2020. The double album summarizing a significant stage of his career was named after the Lithuanian author’s concert piece for saxophone – Osvaldas Balakauskas’ “Polilogue”, which became the title track of the entire release. By the way, this is the only track on the album where Liudas does not improvise a single note.
The recordings of the works of Osvaldas Balakauskas, Vytautas Germanavičius, Raminta Šerkšnytė and Arvydas Malts recorded on the first compact disc record live concert performances with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, St. Christopher’s Chamber Orchestra and Modus Chamber Orchestra. The second one reflects the long and fruitful creative friendship of the saxophonist with the string quartet “Chordos”, which began since the final thesis of his master’s studies at LMTA – Liuda’s own 2002. of the composed minimalist work “Social”. It includes three more compositions for solo saxophone and string quartet by Dietrich Eichmann, Anatolijus Šenderov and Arvydas Malts created in later years, as well as Vykintas Baltaks’ “No. 2” for clarinet solo and “Exodus” by Anatolij Šenderov, the recording of which was supplemented with bright accents by accordionist Raimondas Sviackevičius and percussionist Arkadijus Gotesmans.
On the evening of the presentation of the new album, almost the entire program of the second album will be played, which will be performed live by the protagonist of “Polilogues” Liudas Mockūnas and the members of the string quartet “Chordos”: Ieva Sipaitytė (1st violin), Vaida Paukštiene (2nd violin), Robertas Bliškevičius (viola) and Arnas Kmieliauskas (cello). The evening will be hosted and the performers will be interviewed by musicologist, album booklet editor and translator Veronika Janatjeva. We kindly invite you!

Album: https://mockunas.bandcamp.com/…/liudas-mock-nas…
The publication was partially supported by @Lietuvos kulturosa taryba, @Agata and @International Kunstlerhouse Villa Concordia

The concert will take place at the “Vilnius Record Studio”
B. Radvilaitė str. 8, Vilnius 01124
You can reserve tickets by e-mail. by mail tickets@improdimensija.lt, tel. +37061713377 to purchase https://tickets.paysera.com/…/liudas-mockunas-ir… or at the venue one hour before the concert.
The ticket price is 20 euros, for students, schoolchildren and seniors 15 euros