Cultural historian Aurimas Švedas’s book “Irena Veisaitė. Gyvenimas turėtų būti skaidrus” [Irena Veisaitė. Life Should Be Transparent] will be launched at the Vilnius Picture Gallery at 6:00 P.M. on December 15. Historian Saulius Sužiedėlis says the book contains unforgettable images of 20th century Lithuanian history, including the Jewish and Lithuanian interwar period in Kaunas, the ruthless reality of the war and the Holocaust, rescue and rebirth.

Author Švedas, the subject of the book Irena Veisaitė herself, theater producer Audra Žukaitytė, director Gintaras Varnas and literary scholar Kęstutis Nastopka are to attend the book launch, to be moderated by Vytenė Muschick. The book details the extraordinary life of the German literature specialist, drama expert and long-time director of Lithuania’s Open Society Fund.

Poet, translator and student of culture Tomas Venclova said of the book: “This book belonging in the genre of long conversational is a prerequisite for everyone who is interested in Lithuanian history over recent decades. Irena Veisaitė is one of the most enlightened people of our land, the incarnation of tolerance and common sense. She devotes the most attention to culture, especially the theater, and the cultural opposition in the Soviet period, but very wisely, avoiding extremism and empty words, also lays out painful philosophical questions.”

Full story in Lithuanian here.

You are invited to attend the launch of the compact disc called Four Musical Views on a Jewish Theme at the Lithuanian Jewish Community in Vilnius at 6:00 P.M. on December 12. The compact disc is a project by the Lithuanian Union of Musicians, Muzikos Barai magazine and the Goodwill Foundation. Participants are to include composer and president of the Lithuanian Union of Musicians Audronė Žigaitytė-Nekrošienė, pianist and music professor Leonidas Melnikas, violinist Borisas Traubas and cellist Valentinas Kaplūnas.

The Four Musical Views on a Jewish Theme CD is a unique musical excursion into the tragic 20th-century history of the Jews. Never before had anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews reached such proportions, never before had epiphanies of evil been accompanied by such violence and suffering. Artists were unable to remain silent and their work testifies to, and sometimes screams about these shameful pages of history, condemning evil and exalting good. Four great 20th-century musicians– Maurice Ravel, Darius Milhaud, Aaron Copland and Dmitri Shostakovich—have immortalized this in their work. The tragic passages of Jewish history retold by these artistic geniuses are performed by Lithuanian artists on the compact disc, including singer Liora Grodnikaitė, violinist Boris Traub, cellist Valentinas Kaplūnas and pianist Leonid Melnik. It is an appeal to every individual and to everyone.

Muzikos Barai magazine has made this disc available to readers as a free gift. In their October issue they published an article about those who rescued Jews from the Holocaust in Lithuania.