Chamber Choir "Brevis"

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Biography
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Concerts
Sound recordings
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Biography
Repertoire
Concerts
Sound recordings
Press
Gallery

The chamber choir Brevis is one of the best choirs in Lithuania. It was established in 1990. Since 1993 it has been led by conductor Gintautas Venislovas. The choir has been performing abroad frequently, participating in international festivals in Italy and France. In Lithuania, Brevis gives solo concerts at least once a year. Its repertoire is based on music a capella from Early Renaissance (J. Depres) to opuses by contemporary composers (G. Ligeti, A. Pärt). The choir also sings sacral music and folk music of various nations (in 2002 the choir won the international Competition of Russian Sacral Music in Poland). The young choir often participates in various non-traditional events together with other Lithuanian and foreign musicians. In 1999, together with famous Lithuanian rock and pop musicians, Brevis recorded the album Kalėdų gėlės (Christmas Flowers) and gave a concert-installation Amžinoji šviesa (Eternal Light) by combining music, monumental art and architecture. In 2001, the choir organised the courses for interpreting choir music from Philippines and other countries of Asia, held by the conductor from Philippines J. A. Pamintuan. During all its performances the choir demonstrates an ability to interpret work by composers of various centuries and epochs subtly and with style.


Brevis has won several important competitions. In 1996 the choir won Grand Prix at the International Choral Competition in Slovenia; it won first prizes in Belgium (the same year), Spain (1997), Germany (1998), Italy (2000 and 2002) and Poland (2002). Upon being awarded Grand Prix at the International Competition of Choral Music ‘C.A. Seghizzi’ in Gorizia (Italy), the choir won the right to compete for the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing in Tours, 2003: the highest award for amateur choirs in Europe. Brevis won it triumphing over the winners of Grand Prix of the most important European choral competitions: choirs from Germany, United States of America, Norway and Finland.


In 2001 the choir Brevis was awarded the Golden Bird by the Folk Culture Centre for its long-term musical activity in Lithuania and abroad. The same year the Lithuanian Union of Musicians awarded the choir for its ingenuous and artistic programmes the highest prize: The Golden Disc.

Lithuanian Composers

Vaclovas Augustinas

Hymne a Saint Martin

Cantate Domine canticum novum

Vytautas V. Barkauskas

Commedia dell arte

Julius Juzeliūnas

Opera „The Game”

Jurijus Kalcas

Regina Coreli

Vytautas Miškinis

Tenebrae Factae Sunt

Stans autem Jesus

Lucis Creator optime

Laudate Pueri

Pater noster

Jonas Tamulionis

"Two Allegories of a Bird" (text by Justinas Marcinkevicius)

Canciones de amor (text by F.G. Lorca )

Verlaine (text by F.G.Lorca)

Mindaugas Urbaitis

Lacrymosa

Gintautas Venislovas

Agnus Dei from Missa brevis

O Sanctissima

Foreign Composers

Agostino Agazzari

Motet „Benedicta sit Sancta Trinitas“

Hendrik Andriessen

Ave Maria

Lajos Bardos

Libera me, Domine

Luciano Berio

"Laborintus II"

Kurt Bikkembergs

Missa in Honorem Sancti Norberti

Guillaume Bouzignac

Alleluya! Deus Dixit, motet for 5 voices

Johannes Brahms

Ich aber bin elend, motet for chorus, op. 110/1

Es ist das Heil uns kommen Her, motet for chorus, op. 29

Anton Bruckner

Os justi, gradual for chorus in Lydian mode, WAB 30

Javier Busto

Laudate Pueri

Comedetis carnes

Stephen Chatman

Elizabethan Summer

William Dawson

Ezekiel saw de wheel (spiritual)

Maurice Duruflé

Notre pere

Gabriel Fauré

Cantique de Jean Racine, for 4-part chorus and organ (or orchestra), op. 11

Jacobus Gallus

Pater noster

Musica noster amor

Jerusalem Gaude

Orlando Gibbons

Hosanna to the son of David, anthem for 6 voices

Ruggiero Giovannelli

 „Suauissime Iesu“

Zoltán Kodály

Adventi ének

Marij Kogoj

Trenutek / The Moment

Andrzej Koszewski

Miserere

Serioso-Giocoso

Jean Langlais

Ave Mundi Gloria

Orlando di Lasso

„Benedic, anima mea“

Morten Lauridsen

Io piango

Ov’e lass, il bel viso (from “Six Fire Songs "on Italian Renaissance Poems)

Antonio Lotti

Crucifixus

Pawel Lukaszewski

 Angelus Dominus

Claudio Monteverdi

S'andasse amor a caccia, madrigal for 5 voices (from Book 2), SV 49

Vic Nees

Gloria patri

Asprilio Pacelli

„Media nocte“

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

„Benedictus sit Deus“

„Missa Papae Marcelli“

Francis Poulenc

Timor et tremor, motet for chorus (4 motets pour un temps de pénitence)

Sanctus and Benedictus from Mass in G major , FP 89

Videntes stellam, motet (4 motets pour le temps de Noėl)

Karol Prosnak

Wesele Sieradzkie

Raymond Schroyens

Credo “I cannot find my way”

Francesco Rognoni Taeggio

„Pulchra es anima mea“

Laurence Traiger

Dort Starb Moshe

Thomas Tomkins

 "See, See the Shepheards' Queene", for 5 voices (madrigal)

Orazio Vecchi

„L’Amfiparnaso“, w. Giulio Cesare Croce (1550–1609)

Giuseppe Verdi

Pater noster

Tomćs Luiso de Victoria

„Magnificat quinti toni“

"Missa pro victoria"

William Walton

"Set me as a seal upon thine heart"

Concert in Vilnius Congress Palace, March 25, 2009

CHAMBER CONCERT "White cyclamen - distant echoes in the song"

Naoko Zukero

White cyclamen (Shiroi Shikuramen)

Ko Matsushita

Japanese Folk Song Collection

Lithuanian and foreign composers

Kunitači music at the University Gymnasium Choir (Japan)

Chamber choir "Brevis" (lead. Gintautas Venislovas)