The PROCESS – a music laboratory network

The PROCESS in 2010

“Nordplus Intensive Programme music laboratory the PROCESS” took place for the first time in the Lithuanian resort Druskininkai, full of green forests, sun and spa in 2010. Composition students and professors from higher music educational institutions from Nordic countries and Lithuania met in a two-week music laboratory. Usually classical composers create in separation and loneliness, but the PROCESS participants got surprised by the relaxing atmosphere in Druskininkai with group seminars and meetings, sightseeing trips to the parks and museums including famous Gruto park which exposes sculptures from the Soviet time, and simultaneously happening Druskomanija festival, the most traditional contemporary music festival in Lithuania.

Participants’ comments from their feed-back reports:

“Very good idea to organize such a rich and multi-faceted project! Wonderful as a participant to get to know teachers (and students) from all Nordic countries plus Lithuania”

“It was very good to see people doing so different things in music than what I do myself. To hear new aspects and different opinions in the private lessons with professors and in conversations with other participants was really interesting and important to my own development. Most of the professors took my music very seriously and really made an effort to help me with my problems”

“I was amazed by the approach and erudition of the lecturers. They gave penetrating comments and advice after having just a quick glimpse through the scores. They were also very supportive and open-minded to other styles of writing music. Their public lectures made it possible to get to know them as actual practical musicians and compare their (very) different approaches”

“The place was extremely beautiful and peaceful, a perfect place to concentrate on music. I really enjoyed the nature”

The creative PROCESS happened

The young and advanced students of composition generated ideas together and were inspired by each others works, and by Lithuanian surroundings. As result, two concerts of the Nordic/Baltic music created in the PROCESS were presented in the Druskomanija festival, and applauded by the large audience of contemporary music lovers.

Inspired by our cultural similarities in Baltic and Nordic countries

The wish to draw more attention to the regional cultural similarities and at the same time learning about the authenticity of every Nordic and Baltic country has lead to a second Nordplus IP Music Laboratory The PROCESS in 2012 (April 16-29). Twenty young composers from 12 Nordic and Baltic countries will gather together in Vilnius. Two student ensembles – string quartet ReDo from Latvia and percussion ensemble Evolution from Sweden will stimulate composers by offering them creative workshops, rehearsing and performing their compositions, and stimulating them to explore the future of music.

• The Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre is a co-ordinating institution of the PROCESS.

• Partners: Royal Danish Academy of Music (Denmark), Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (Estonia), Sibelius Academy (Finland), School of Music, Tampere University of Applied Sciences (Finland), Iceland Academy of the Arts, Department of Music (Iceland), Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music (Latvia), Norwegian Academy of Music (Norway), Academy of Music and Drama, Gothenburg University (Sweden), Institute of Music and Media, Lulea University of Technology (Sweden), Malmö Academy of Music (Sweden), Royal College of Music in Stockholm (Sweden).

TEXT: Rima Rimšaitė, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre