(ALMOST) ALL OF MOZART’S SONGS | CULTURE NIGHT 2026 – OPEN ACADEMY
June 12, 2026, Friday, 7:00–8:45 p.m.
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, J. Karosas Hall (Gedimino Ave. 42, Vilnius)
(ALMOST) ALL OF MOZART’S SONGS | CULTURE NIGHT 2026 – OPEN ACADEMY
As the cultural world celebrates the 270th anniversary of Mozart’s birth this year, LMTA students present (almost) all of the genius composer’s works for voice and piano. The intrigue of the concert – audiences will hear a rare instrument from Mozart’s own era, almost never heard in Lithuania.
Mozart’s songs are perhaps the least frequently performed part of his creative legacy. Yet even in these miniatures, Mozart’s genius is unmistakable. Listening not only to a few better-known songs but to the entirety of his vocal miniatures reveals the wide-ranging world of themes that fascinated the composer. Mozart, so often overflowing with joy, playful and light-hearted, can also be restrained, contemplative, didactic, philosophical, or even tragic.
During the concert, the singers will be accompanied not by a modern piano, but by a little-known historical instrument – the early piano, also known as fortepiano, pianoforte, or hammerflügel. Such instruments were built in late 18th-century Vienna by piano maker Anton Walter. Mozart himself performed on an instrument made by this master (the authentic fortepiano once owned by Mozart is preserved in a museum in Salzburg). Concert audiences will hear a copy of a 1796 Walter fortepiano, built by renowned contemporary specialist in historical keyboards, Paul McNulty.
Performers:
Singers:
Kamilė Globytė
Liepa Ribokaitė
Rūta Plučiūtė
Goda Zakarauskaitė
Vasilisa Agarkova
Sofija Ruginytė
Linas Drąsutis
Izabelė Švenčionytė
Saulė Šerytė
Pianists:
Augustė Pauliūtė
Elzė Kaziukonytė
Joris Mikužis
Kamilė Grigorčenkaitė
Aistė Bernotavičiūtė
Viltė Kanaporytė
Yana Serbina
Jonė Punytė-Svigarienė
OPEN ACADEMY / Culture Night 2026
During “Culture Night”, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre opens its spaces to the city and invites audiences on a journey through music and theatre stretching from the halls and corridors of LMTA’s central building to Lukiškės Square and the new stage of the Theatre and Dance Faculty at the Study Campus. This year’s programme brings together different art forms, generations, and sound worlds – from Mozart’s music and experimental electronics to theatre and piano performances under the open sky.
At the beginning of the evening, visitors at the Academy will be able to discover a variety of musical experiences. In the J. Karosas Hall, audiences will have a rare opportunity to hear almost all of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s songs for voice and piano performed on an authentic 18th-century fortepiano. At the same time, LMTA corridors will transform into a vibrant experimental music space, where the electronic music ensemble will perform an electronic version of Terry Riley’s minimalist composition In C, in which improvisation, pulse, and collective creativity create a different sonic experience every time.
Theatre also plays an important role in LMTA’s “Culture Night” programme. Audiences are invited to visit the new LMTA Theatre and Dance Faculty Hall on Olandų Street, where the performance The Little Witch will be presented. This warm, playful, and imaginative story about a young witch will become an invitation to discover the works of emerging theatre creators and the Academy’s new spaces.
Lukiškės Square will traditionally become the central point of the evening, hosting the piano music night “Black on White”. Since 2009, the project has become an inseparable part of “Culture Night” – featuring open-air performances by young LMTA pianists and, at midnight, a recital by Professor Petras Geniušas. This year, the concert will once again connect different Lithuanian cities – for the third time, “Black on White” will be livestreamed to six locations across Lithuania, expanding the piano music night beyond Vilnius.
This year’s LMTA programme invites audiences to experience the Academy as a vibrant, open, and constantly evolving cultural space, where music and theatre move beyond traditional stages into squares, corridors, and unexpected meeting places, and where one night becomes an opportunity to hear, see, and experience the Academy in an entirely different rhythm.