On 7 March 2025, the traditional concert “The Wind of Freedom”, organised by the community of the Department of Performing Arts of the Faculty of Arts and Creative Technologies, dedicated to the Day of the Restoration of Lithuania’s Independence, took place, which also marked the end of the 17th International Teaching Week of Vilniaus Kolegija / Higher Education Institution. The participants of the International Teaching Week gathered in the Central Hall of Vilniaus Kolegija / Higher Education Institution in a particularly large number to celebrate this great occasion, which is celebrating its 35th year this year. Associate professor Dalia Babilaitė-Abarė, the author and director of the script of the concert, invited the audience to experience Lithuania: to feel its natural beauty, to recall the painful historical and contemporary hardships, to experience, reflect and cherish the greatest treasure – Freedom.
The celebration started with the National Anthem performed by Lukrecija Vasiliauskaitė – Luka and the chamber choir of the students of the Department of Performing Arts under the direction of the lecturer Povilas Butkus.
The concert included student songs and well-known, original interpretations of works by Lithuanian composers, performed by students Toma Pauraitė, Gerda Tamulytė, Evelina Maciūtė, Modestas Karanda, Karolina Bimbaitė, Vaiva Drabulytė, Kamila Vaitkutė, Domantas Taukinaitis, Evelina Dubauskaitė and the Student Chamber Choir. They were accompanied by lecturer Nijolė Baranauskaitė-Matukonienė and students on the piano with sensitivity and professionalism. Remembering the sacrifice of Ukraine, which fought for the freedom of all of us, student Anna Slobozhanska performed the Ukrainian folk song “Ой tam на горі” (“Oh, there on the mountain”). She was accompanied by Leonidas Mieldažis. The musical programme was combined with “Letters to Lithuania” written by Romas Lileikis and read by Kamilė Vaitkutė, and the celebration was meaningfully crowned by the song “Freedom” by Lukrecija Vasiliauskaitė-Luka, which was performed in this year’s National Eurovision Song Contest.
During the preparation of the singers’ and pianists’ performances, the teachers of the Performing Arts Department – Head of the Department, Associate Professor Eglė Juozapaitienė, Associate Professor Dalia Babilaitė-Abarė, and lecturers Nijolė Baranauskaitė-Matukonienė, Deivydas Norvilas and Justinas Lapatinskas – actively cooperated. Arrangements for the choir by lecturer Povilas Butkus.
Let us celebrate, love and cherish Freedom every day – it is fragile.
Photos by Indrė Žygaitytė.
