Festival “World piano stars salute M. K. Čiurlionis”

On 22 September, the M. K. Čiurlionis’ birthday, the festival World Piano Stars Salute M. K. Čiurlionis will invite music lovers to a gala concert at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall, where five world-renowned pianists will celebrate M. K. Čiurlionis, an ambassador of Lithuanian culture and identity around the world born 150 years ago in Varėna, and his music. The culminating moment of the festival will feature Andrew Brownell (USA), the only American pianist to have won the title of laureate of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, Gustav Piekut (Kingdom of Denmark), able to “hit the sweet spot between technical accuracy and off-the-cuff brilliance” (BBC), and the young but already renowned pianists Szymon Nehring (Poland) and Dmitry Mayboroda (Germany), both of whom are performing in prestigious venues worldwide. The evening will conclude with a musical fantasy Pokalbis, kurio niekada nebuvo (The Conversation that Never Was), performed by one of the world’s leading promoters of the legacy of M. K. Čiurlionis, the composer’s great-grandson, pianist Rokas Zubovas.

In 2025, the festival World Piano Stars Salute M. K. Čiurlionis invites you to join a unique musical celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of M. K. Čiurlionis, which will bring together the work of the genius and the mastery of the world’s foremost pianists. Musical celebrities from Lithuania and abroad will present the depths of M. K. Čiurlionis’ music and the international aptitude. In September, concerts will take place in the country’s largest cities and special venues, and the programme will include not only gala performances, but also many other extraordinary concerts from classical to innovative interpretations, asking: is M.K. Čiurlionis really 150 years old?