Successful Prison Concert Series in Lithuania

Report on our Halifax event

About 100 Ukrainian refugees (some with small children) arrived in St. Andrew’s Church in Halifax this evening to enjoy the music of Bach and Chopin, gifted by the Looking at the Stars foundation.

A short presentation about our Ukrainian projects and a demo of “Chopin in Irpin” trailer was immediately followed by a Ukrainian national anthem sung emotionally and enthusiastically by everyone in the beautiful hall.

Then for about one hour one could hear the pin drop and dozens of hearts beat during the brilliant performance of the pianist Walter Delahunt.

A wonderful and grateful audience. A deeply emotional and successful event – to be remembered.

Special thanks to Peter J Lambert for moderating it, to Polina Kogan for organizing it , to Mychol Scully and Derek St. Dennis for technically supporting it.

We agreed to return to Halifax next Spring.

   

A Gift of Music to Ukrainian Refugees in Canada

The Great Dmitry Sitkovetsky joins our Lithuania Fall Series

We are delighted to announce that worldwide renowned “renaissance man and a magnetic personality,” violinist, conductor, and educator Dmitry Sitkovetsky is joining our Lithuanian Fall series together with our old friend and featured artist, internationally acclaimed pianist, Lukas Geniušas. They will present a Program at the women’s prison in the Lithuanian city of Panevezys.

Lithuanian Program for October includes Canadian Talent

CANADIAN CHARITY GIFTS CHOPIN to IRPIN

Lithuanian pianist Darius Mazintas , Artistic Director of Looking at the Stars Canadian Foundation (lookingatthestars.org) performs Chopin’s Nocturnes in front of the ruined House of Culture in the city of Irpin, Ukraine earlier this morning.

The barbarians have destroyed the HOUSE, but failed to destroy the CULTURE.

Photos: Margarita Steinberg

Looking at the Stars in Ukraine

In honor and support of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, Looking at the Stars Foundation, a registered Canadian federal charity, will present a symbolic gift of two classical music concerts to the heroic Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Irpin.

Looking at the Stars Artistic Director, distinguished Lithuanian pianist Darius Mazintas will present two recitals of Nocturnes by Frederic Chopin.

  • Tuesday, April 26 at 9:00 – in the City of Irpin – in front of a city landmark (outdoors) – destroyed House of Culture – without an audience.
  • Wednesday, April 27 at 15:00 – in the Central Military Hospital in Kyiv (outdoors) – to the patients and staff.

We express our deepest gratitude and appreciation to journalist and editor Vitaliy Portnikov and a very special thank-you to Yaryna Yasynevych, Head of the Management Board of the Ukrainian Democratic Forum, for her invaluable support while organizing the event at Irpin.

Both events will be video recorded and subsequently shared on social media. Both are fully funded by Looking at the Stars Foundation.

Looking at the Stars Lithuania OFFICIAL

PRESS RELEASE (kind of)

Dear Papa,

I am honoured and am rushing to tell you that on March 23, 2022 Looking at the Stars Paramos Fondas (lookingatthestars.lt) was registered in your native Jonava ! – your love, your hometown and the source of your remarkable literature.

You probably remember our numerous conversations back in 2015, when I was establishing the foundation in Canada – it was this unique fantastic universe of hope of a little orphan created by you in the novelette “I look at the Stars“, published in 1959, which has inspired me with the very idea and the name of then a new Canadian charitable foundation. Today these conversations and the story of a little orphan continue to reinforce my faith in the human mission, planted in me by you and mama over many years we spent together and many more we spent apart.

Letting you know, that we (Looking at the Stars Canadian Foundation – lookingatthestars.org) have made the first step in extending our efforts to bring dignity and hope to the darkest corners of our society from Canada to Lithuania. We will not stop here. We will stay on the road (as your quartet of happy odd travellers in your play Smile at us, oh Lord) and will ultimately get to the Jerusalem, as you did in 1993.

You know, there still quite a few good people to be found here in Lithuania, people who are able to lift their heads up and to notice the stars in the sky – Virginijus Kulikauskas, the head of the Prison Department, Kastytis Skiečius, General manager of Baltijos Plienas, UAB, Edvinas Peleckas, General manager of Bincis, UAB in Jonava, Mindaugas Sinkevičius, Mayor of Jonava and of course our indispensable treasure- our “wedding musicians” – pianists Darius Mažintas, Lukas Geniušas, a young Canadian star Tony Yang and cellist Gleb Pysniak. And the list of good people continues…

We are ready to celebrate this very special occasion in the style of Litvak saga – literary works and news about Grigory Kanovich – by means of GIVING – gifting 6 classical music concerts to the Lithuanian prisons and one to the Afghan, Iranian and Iraqi refugee camp in Rukla – just next to Jonava.

The musicians will be on fire and the hearts of our listeners will melt as the snow melts in spring – the sounds of the works by Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Dvarionas, Frank, Kacanauskas, Liszt, Prokofiev, Ravel and Schumann will fill the air with love and hope for a better future.

And in spite of the distance separating us, you will hear the music and you will hear the applause and you will feel the warmth of the profound gratitude of our spellbound audiences…