International Student Chamber Music Festival

The Student Chamber Music Festival stems from the Festival of Chamber Music Ensembles of Baltic Conservatoires held in 1967; besides ensembles from the closest neighbours Estonia and Latvia, the event invited prominent performers from Moscow (Moscow Trio, Komitas Quartet) and other cities of the then USSR. The second festival took place in 1969. Later, for almost two decades, the festival was traditionally organised by the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian conservatoires (now Academies).

Since Lithuania regained its independence, the geography of the festival’s participants has widened. The event of 1992 welcomed chamber music ensembles from higher music education institutions in Helsinki and Berlin, while in 1993 the festival was held in Helsinki under the name The Baltic Festival.  In Berlin in 1995, the festival for the first time offered masterclasses which have since become an important part of the festivals. In 2002, ensembles from Italian and Austrian higher music education institutions participated in the International Student Chamber Music Festival in Vilnius along with representatives from Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Germany.

The festival held at the LMTA in 2008 hosted the first annual meeting of the European Chamber Music Teachers’ Association (ECMTA) founded in 2007. Since then, ECMTA meetings have often been organised together with the festivals.