31 Pažaislis Music Festival 2026

The festival's grand symphonic and vocal music concerts attract a large audience, including many who do not usually attend classical music concerts, due to their uniqueness and the opportunity to hear classical music in the exceptional setting of the large courtyard of the Pažaislis Monastery ensemble. In summer 2026 the festival's major concerts will feature symphonic and vocal opuses that have not yet been heard in Lithuania or are rarely performed, as well as premieres of new works. The year 2026 will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Spanish composer Manuel De Falla. On the initiative of the festival, his opera La Vida Breve will be performed in concert for the first time in Lithuania. The festival will be opened by guests from Switzerland – the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Modestas Pitrėnas, with Martynas Levickis (accordion). The festival programme will feature the first performance of one of F. Liszt's last works, Via Crucis, performed by Mūza Rubackytė (piano), the Kaunas State Choir, soloists, and conductor Robertas Šervenikas. There will also be a new space for a unique musical project. The programme will be enriched by cross-genre projects that will reveal the musical traditions of exotic countries and their original connections with classical music. Aiming to attract the wider audience, Pažaislis Music Festival does not stop on classical music genre. In 2026 the programme of the festival will included jazz, world music, national music from various countries, and crossover music projects. Listeners of all ages will be invited to take part in the festival's educational activities - the "Conversations about Music" cycle, the "PAŽAISk" brainteaser, and the "Meetings in Music" tradition, which was born in 2020, will also be continued, with a series of free of charge educational events in various social institutions.