A concert performance inspired by the work and love story of composer Frederic Chopin and writer George Sand
WINTER IN MAJORCA
Excerpts from “WINTER IN MAJORCA” by George Sand translated by Birutė Mar.
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Eglė Andrejevaitė...
Winner of international competitions, graduate of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, founder of TonArt piano studio, pianist Eglė Andrejevaitė studied in Germany at the Stuttgart University of Music and Applied Arts. In 2012, together with violinist Augusta Jusionyte, she made her debut at the Graz Philharmonic, Austria. Since 2013, she is putting special emphasies on thematic solo concert programmes: Hour with Beethoven, Coco CHANEL project, Engraving – dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Baltic States, Chopin’s Haiku, which have been performed in Lithuania, Italy, Australia, USA.
Birutė Mar...
Birutė Mar, actress, director, writer, founder and artistic director of SOLO THEATRE, has been creating independent theater-literary-musical projects, chamber performances, and internationally acclaimed one-man shows since 1998. Her works have been presented at theater forums in more than 30 European and world countries, and have received awards at international theater festivals. In 2020, Birutė Mar was awarded the Lithuanian Government’s Culture and Art Prize.
Collaboration
This project is a collaboration between TonArt Piano Studio and Creative Studio Solo. The project was partially supported by Vilnius City Municipality and the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
The winter of 1838-1839 was spent together on the Spanish island of Majorca by two famous composers who fell in love with each other: the Polish composer Frederic Chopin and the French writer George Sand. At the time Sand was known as an artist who broke the conservative norms of society by wearing men’s clothes and holding a cigar which was one of the first female “pipers” of the 19th century. By the time she met Chopin, she had already lived in a women’s convent, got married, had given birth to a son and a daughter, left her husband, followed her lover to Paris and written several novels under the masculine pseudonym George Sand. Chopin was not yet thirty but he was already a renowned musical genius and virtuoso who had toured many countries with concerts. Yet abandoned by the woman he was engaged to…
Chopin has been plagued by coughing fits since childhood, and together with his new sweetheart and her two children, they decide to spend the winter on the warm Spanish island of Majorca.
Despite the difficulties of domestic life and the lovers’ tumultuous relationship, the trip was productive: staying at the Monastery of Valldemossa on the island of Majorca, the artists worked intensively there with Chopin composing his famous set of piano preludes Op. 28, and Sand writing a book of essays and memoirs “WINTER IN MAJORCA”.
WINTER IN MAJORCA
Award
At the International Theatre Festival “Druskininkai Summer Theatre Crossroads” (2021), the concert performance “WINTER IN MAJORCA” was awarded a Festival Diploma “For the connection between music and word” by the international jury.
Audience feedback
It was a great concert in Kaunas. I particularly admired the actress Birute Mar, who conveyed the period of Chopin and Sand’s life spent in Majorca with great subtlety and aristocracy. Special thanks also go to the pianist Andrejevaite who dared to perform the entire set of Chopin’s preludes without having to endure the heat of the Kaunas Philharmonic. We look forward to the next concerts.