David Geringas and His Famous Pupils
International Klaipėda Cello Festival
May 5-10, 2025
Opening concert: David Geringas and His Famous Pupils
Magic is always in the air when maestro David Geringas and his pupils meet on stage. Dialogues between the teacher and his pupils will merge into an ode to music at the spectacular opening concert of the International Klaipėda Cello Festival. Jens Peter Maintz, an outstanding cello virtuoso, Jing Zhao, a Chinese artist of exceptional talent, and Kornelija Kupšytė, one of the brightest cello players in Klaipėda, will embark on a musical exploration with the maestro.
Is it possible to surpass a genius and become better than the teacher? We will seek the answer to this eternal question in this unique musical dialogue.
The opening concert of the International Klaipėda Cello Festival is centred on the Teacher and his students. According to Mindaugas Bačkus, Artistic Director of the festival, “in the world of music, it is very important to have a teacher, not only an authority, but also a person who helps you to follow the path of creativity, who inspires you to improve, to keep going.”
The Teacher in this programme is one of the world’s foremost cellists and cello educators, David Geringas. He will share the stage with his former students: Jens Peter Maintz, one of the most prominent cello virtuosos and teachers in Europe; Jing Zhao, an exceptionally talented cello virtuoso of Chinese origin, and Kornelija Kupšytė, the most outstanding cellist of the younger generation of Klaipėda cellists. Kornelija Kupšytė has had the opportunity to take part in Professor David Geringas’ lessons since she was a child. She will perform a work that has given a special impetus to her professional development: Ottorino Respighi’s Adagio con variazioni. The programme features works by two composers whose anniversaries are celebrated in 2025. One of them is Anatolijus Šenderovas’s Con amore – Adagio from the ballet Desdemona, which will be performed by maestro David Geringas. In 2025, the composer Anatolijus Šenderovas would have turned 80. The other piece is The Muse and the Poet, a piece for violin, cello and orchestra by Camille Saint-Saëns. 2025 marks the 190th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The programme will conclude with the moving Requiem for three cellos and orchestra by the renowned Czech cellist and composer David Popper.
The programme will be performed under the baton of two conductors: Professor David Geringas and the Klaipėda State Music Theatre Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor Tomas Ambrozaitis.
PROGRAMME
Ottorino RESPIGHI (1879–1936)
Adagio con variazioni per violoncello e orchestra, P. 133 (1921)
I. Adagio
II. Poco meno adagio
III. Quasi recitativo
Soloist Kornelija Kupšytė (cello), conductor David Geringas
Eugen D’ALBERT (1864–1932)
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in C major, Op.20 (1899)
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante con moto
III. Allegro vivace
Soloist Jens Peter Maintz (cello), conductor David Geringas
Interval
Anatolijus ŠENDEROVAS (1945–2019)
Con amore for cello and orchestra (Adagio from the ballet Desdemona, 2003)
Soloist David Geringas (cello), conductor Tomas Ambrozaitis
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835–1921)
La muse et le poète for violin, cello and orchestra, Op. 132 (1910)
Soloists: Dalia Kuznecovaitė (violin), Jing Zhao (cello), conductor Tomas Ambrozaitis
David POPPER (1843–1913)
Requiem for three cellos and orchestra, Op.66 (1891)
Soloists: David Geringas, Jens Peter Maintz, Jing Zhao (cellos), conductor Tomas Ambrozaitis
