in 2019 After holding two sold-out Christmas concerts at the St. Catherine's Church in Vilnius at the end of the year, the "Bel Canto" choir also celebrated its 10th birthday. At the "10 Christmas Together" concerts on December 20-21. more than 830 viewers visited. Tickets for them were bought a month before the performances.
in 2009 "Bel Canto" choir, which was gathered in the autumn on the initiative of the choristers, has achieved impressive results in ten years. The choir won the title of the best mixed amateur choir in Lithuania twice in a row, entered the country's record book, presented to the Lithuanian audience and for the first time in the history of the country's choral music, performed together with the world's stars of choral music: the world's most popular contemporary composer and conductor, Grammy winner Eric Whitacre , one of the world's most famous composers of choral music today, Ola Gjeilo, the elite British vocal ensemble Voces8 and the choir The Sixteen, as well as excellent choirs from Sweden, JAV and Switzerland.
Bel Canto Choir has paid special attention to the publicity and communication of its activities since its foundation. in 2019 the choir was noticed by the creators of the cult American TV comedy "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and their performance was used in the soundtrack of this series. The choir's activities were also evaluated by Gramophone, the world's most prestigious publication on classical and serious music. He described the "Bel Canto" choir as "the most famous and broad, stylistically diverse repertoire performing choir in Lithuania".
Highlights of Bel Canto Choir Distribution and Reach 2009-2019:
- More than 15 spectators visited the concerts organized by the choir, or an average of 100 spectators per year.
- More than 80 spectators saw the choir's performances at festivals, competitions, social projects and concerts organized by other organizers.
- Choir's YouTube channel video from 2011. viewed more than 8,9 million times (30,2 million minutes), an average of 82 views per month. The five countries with the most views of the choir's YouTube channel: USA, Germany, Italy, France and Lithuania; channel audience: 000% men, 65% women; 35% of viewers are in the 48-18 age group, 44% of viewers are 49-45+.
- The Bel Canto Choir's recordings on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music average 1 monthly streams, mostly in the US, Germany, the UK, Canada and Lithuania.
- The choir's messages, photos, videos on the choir's Facebook and Instagram accounts reach more than 1,4 million users of social networks per year (reach indicator).
Egidijus Kaveckas, the artistic director and conductor of the Bel Canto Choir, says that the results of the choir's ten years of activity, the created image and a strong brand allow the team to boldly start a new phase of development.
"I am proud that in ten years we have done as much as a rare choir not only in Lithuania. I think that we will start the new ten-year phase having strengthened, matured and raised the quality bar even higher. We will continue to strive to constantly improve, grow and nurture a high-quality community of motivated people, to attract new team members who want to devote their free time to high-quality and meaningful activities. We have proven that with a motivated and high-quality team we can not only create a mature, high-quality community of people who appreciate free time, but also enjoy incredible performance results that boldly change the image of choral music and create the history of this music in Lithuania", says Egidijus Kaveckas.
The Bel Canto choir pays a lot of attention not only to relations with music creators of foreign countries. He has also performed with Lithuanian musicians: Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Mikroorkéstra, Giunter Percussion, Vilnius Percussion ensembles, Mettis string quartet, pianists Motiejs Bazarus and Artūrs Anusauskas, soloists Lina Dambrauskaite, Joana Gedmintaite, Ieva Prudnikovaite, Ieva Gaidamavičiūte, singers Tomas Sinickis, Jeronimas Milius, Jurgis Brūzga, groups "Skylė", "Baltasis kiras" and others. The choir also participated in musical projects conducted by the country's most famous conductors, Modestas Pitrėnas and Gintaras Rinkevičius, as well as collaborated with Lithuanian composers Vytautas Miškinis, Vaclovas Augustinas and others.
2009-2017 Artūras Dambrauskas was the artistic director of the "Bel Canto" choir, since 2017. these duties are entrusted to Egidijas Kavecks. Choir master and second conductor is Milda Zapolskaitė, choir master and concertmaster Raminta Gocentienė. Opera soloist Liudas Norvaiš from 2017 to 2019. worked as a choir vocal pedagogue.
