The Process

I spent the last week in Vilnius, Lithuania with Jake and Charles for a really great festival calledThe Process. Two years ago, I attended an international coordinator's meeting for the Nordplus Network in Vilnius and met the Academy's coordinator, Rima. We hit it off right away, and started talking about a project that she produces. The Process invites student composers and lecturers from the Baltic and Scandinavian region to the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre for two weeks. The students attend lectures and receive individual lessons. They also invite two chamber groups to the second half of the festival to work the composers. Because of the great conversation Rima and I had two years ago, Ensemble Evolution was one of the groups chosen this year. We gave a workshop on writing for percussion, then spent 5 days working with the composers, and premiered the eight pieces in concert (and for a recording) on Saturday. It was exhausting, but very rewarding! Vilnius is a great town...had some nice food, experienced nice weather, hung with nice company, and made some nice contacts for future music making!