Music of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth harpsichord recital on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Vilnius “Chiara e lucente stella”

The first half of the 17th century brought cultural flourishing in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Famous musicians from all over Europe were invited, whose music was heard in churches, courts and schools at various levels. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the separate Society of Jesus, founded in 1608, brought a flourishing of the practice and study of sacred music, and the university founded in Vilnius in 1579, with its excellent vocal-instrumental chapel, various musical instruments and a rich music collection, was also one from the main places of musical performance and musical practice, thus keeping pace with the music and culture of the Kingdom of Poland. Alina Rotaru’s research, for which she received a scholarship from the Lithuanian Cultural Council in 2019, mainly focuses on studying three sources of Jesuit Baroque (Braunsberg , Kraziai and Sapieha). However, in this programme, she highlights the broader space of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s keyboard music and the already distinguished genres of “Polish music” on the examples of manuscripts from Königsberg and Wittenberg and the Düben manuscripts.

ALINA ROTARU
She studied piano and choral conducting at her hometown’s music conservatory, Bucharest. After moving to Germany in 1999, she studied harpsichord with Siegbert Rampe and Wolfgang Kostujak in Duisburg, Carsten Lohff and Detlef Bratschke in Bremen and Bob van Asperen in Amsterdam. So far, she has performed as a soloist in most European countries, as well as in Japan, South America and the United States. She teaches at the University of Fine Arts in Bremen (Germany). Her solo recordings of harpsichord works by JP Sweelinck, JJ Froberger and English virginalists received excellent reviews in the music press, which put her on the list of the most outstanding harpsichordists of the young generation. In addition to her musical career, Alina Rotaru has been the organiser of the Bremen Music Festival since 2013. She has also worked as a music producer on several classical productions, some of which were released on Sony Classical /Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. Alina Rotaru currently lives in Vilnius, Lithuania. Together with violist Darius Stabinskas. She founded the MORGAINE ensemble, which debuted in 2016.