FORTEPIJONO MAGIJA

PIANO MAGIC

Pianist Paulius Anderssonas returns to Birštonas not only as a young-generation performer with extensive international experience, but also as a teacher at the International Birštonas Summer Academy of Arts. He will be joined in the concert “Piano Magic” by his student, the young pianist Elinga Stigaitė.

The programme reveals how the language of keyboard music and the possibilities of the instrument have evolved over several centuries. The architectural clarity and spiritual concentration of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music will meet Franz Liszt’s virtuosic transformation of it; Frédéric Chopin’s music will speak through subtle lyricism, while Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana will open a world filled with imagination, inner conflict and Romantic freedom.

Elinga Stigaitė will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826, and Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27 No. 2. Paulius Anderssonas will present Franz Liszt’s piano transcription of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A minor and one of Robert Schumann’s most demanding works, Kreisleriana, Op. 16.

Paulius Anderssonas began performing at the age of five. At eleven, he made his debut with the St Christopher Chamber Orchestra, and by the age of fourteen he had appeared as a soloist with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. He graduated from the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art and studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2021, he received his Master’s degree from the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, and in 2024 he completed further performance studies at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami.

A prize-winner at sixteen international competitions, Paulius Anderssonas has performed across Europe, the United States, Japan and Indonesia. In 2024, he received the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union’s Golden Disc award. In 2025, he won Second Prize at an international piano competition in Lyon, followed by First Prize and the Audience Prize at the International “MozArte” Piano Competition in Aachen.

Elinga Stigaitė is a student at the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art and studies piano with Paulius Anderssonas. She regularly appears in concerts organised by the school and the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union and has performed works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin and Claude Debussy.

The appearance of teacher and student in the same concert reflects the very purpose of the Birštonas Summer Academy of Arts: bringing together the experience of an established performer and the developing artistic voice of a young musician.

Performers:

Paulius Anderssonas, piano
Featuring Elinga Stigaitė, piano

Programme: Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann

Tuesday, 4 August, 7 p.m.
Birštonas Kurhaus, 2 B. Sruogos Street