Contacts
Location: 7 St. John's Street, St. John's Church organ balcony
Art Groups
Contacts
Location: Morgas café, Mažoji aula, Universiteto g. 3, entrance from Didysis kiemas.
Improv classes are lead by lector - doc. Vytautas Kontrimas:
Contacts
Rehearsal location: Business School (Saulėtekio al. 22)
If you have any questions about VU Jazz Voices, please, contact Martynas Vilpišauskas by email at
Contacts
Rehearsal location: Vinco Krėvės Auditorium, Faculty of Philology (Universiteto g. 5).
Contacts
Rehearsal location: Vinco Krėvės Auditorium, Faculty of Philology (Universiteto g. 5).
Choirmasters:
Contacts
Rehearsal location: Vinco Krėvės Auditorium, Faculty of Philology (Universiteto g. 5).
Contacts
Rehearsal location: Saulėtekio al. 2, 2nd floor (aerobics hall)
For more information about rehearsals and how to join, please contact Terese Gritėniene at .
Drama theatre
Lindy Hop Dance Group
The VU Lindy Hop Dance Group was formed in September 2019. It brings together students who want to explore dance and learn the basics of lindy hop. Advanced dancers are also welcome to join the group to have a great time, gain more choreographic knowledge and stage skills. This year we are looking forward to welcoming motivated students to join the dance group.
Dance group leader - Teresė Gritėnienė.
VU Lindy Hopers' motto: you come as a human, you'll leave as a dancer! 💃🏻
Some of VU Lindy Hop dance group performances:
Gallery
Improv Studio
Improv Studio is a bunch of incredibly fun, resourceful and playful students, who learn and practice the art of improvisation with their leader - actor and educator Vytautas Kontrimas. Vilnius University Culture Centre founded the project "Theatre improvisation" in 2021 and as of today the Improv group has gained a lot of interest as well as already organized the first ever "Impro Ring" in Vilnius University!
Tango studio
Argentine Tango is a pleasant, improvised dance where you learn to lead and follow your partner. It gives the dancers the chance to dance with anyone they meet, and it's also a great way to socialize – tango takes place in almost every big city and has great communities. The Tango studio has established its home at Vilnius University since the fall season of 2022 and invites everyone who wants to learn this bright dance!
VU Jazz Voices
From 2021, Vilnius University Culture Centre invites you to join the musical project "VU Jazz Voices". The collective aims to bring together talented jazz and swing music-loving university people who want to develop their vocal abilities and create a special, spectacular music programs.
Many universities and colleges around the world encourage young people to choose as many genres of music as possible. According to Gintė Jokubaitienė, head of the VU Culture Centre, the idea to offer students a musical project in which they could learn the peculiarities of jazz singing arose after the "Talent Evening" organized by the VU Community Department. "I saw how many really musical, talented people we have at the university. I felt that the possibilities of some voices, timbres of sound would be revealed much better in a jazz singing style. Although most students attend choirs and have their own groups, I think we still have a lot of room for the expansion of musical culture at the university", says G. Jokubaitienė..
Jazz vocal and improvisation teacher, performer Martynas Vilpišauskas was invited to lead the musical project.
Martynas completed his undergraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Academy in London, and obtained a Master's degree in composition at the University of Hertfordshire, England. In the United Kingdom, he directed several different choirs, sang in the a cappella music ensemble VIVE, which won the prestigious Ward Swingle Award, and appeared on BBC television. After returning to Lithuania, he worked for several years at the A. Novikas Jazz School and Vilnius College. Martynas has his own vocal group "SingPhonics" and participates in various electronic music projects.
"Jazz choir is a combination of two of my favorite things. Jazz is the freedom to create, improvise and interpret, while choir is a genre of precise, unified vocal singing. Although I myself have been singing and playing since childhood, I keep discovering something new every day. There are no boundaries in music, and when making music I think it's best to just be in the moment", says M. Vilpišauskas.
"VU Jazz Voices" Christmas performance:
Rehearsal time:
On Mondays and Thursdays, in the auditorium no. 2 of the VU Business School (Saulėtekio al. 22) from 7 p.m.
Do you have questions about VU Jazz Voices? Write an e-mail:
Organ Studio "Unda Maris"
Ever wanted the feel of the cosmos filling your ears and head and chest? You can experience this by listening to organ music. But what if you could make the music yourself?
The organists of Vilnius University - Vidas and Aušra Pinkevičius - are holding organ playing classes for every interested player. You will be learning in groups and rehearse individually in a pace you prefer and will be guided by professional musicians and educators.
If you're interested, write an email or call:
(+370) 617 88017Kinetic Theatre
Vilnius University (VU) Kinetic theatre is guided by choreographer and director Andrius Pulkauninkas (abbr.: A. Pulka) since 1999. Though it’s constantly changing the members and names, it is being faithful to the traditions of physical/visual/non-verbal theater, and thus confusing consciousness of audience with absurd experiments on the stage.
The only recognized theatre form is the absence of form. The only expression of existence is fluidity, because if one can notice the form – it means – the form is already dead. The Kinetic Theatre propagates live improvisations, use of natural effects and elements (fire, clay, peat, sand, etc.), and risk factors (dangerous tools, sharp instruments) as the method to awaken the sleeping audience. The performances take place indoor as well as outdoor. The performances have strong feeling of risk (2 members of the Company work as stuntmen in the cinema production as well), shock and oddity, which creates the general ironical combination of grotesque and absurdity and questions the individual’s peculiarity, personal expression, loneliness, conflict with society, meaninglessness, and emptiness of daily consuming life.
The troupe participates in nontraditional events, art exhibitions, concerts, cinema/video projects, dance/theater festivals. It keeps in contact with the Lithuanian and international contemporary professional dance/theater scene and contemporary movement of mimes. Stating that “there’s no border between professionals and amateurs, it’s only a border between good and bad performance”, they organize alternative festival of interdisciplinary arts Open and workshops inviting people no matter the school they belong to: professionals or amateurs, dance or theater…
VU Kinetic Theatre participated and received the acknowledgement in the number of international festivals covering the geographical range from Europe (Lithuania, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Croatia, Morocco, Georgia, Austria etc.) to the Americas.
In 2023 VU Kinetic Theatre collaborated in creating the joint Lithuanian and Ukrainian theater educational project "Starting Point". During the project, VU students, together with Ukrainian youth, delved into the secrets of theater, discussed the realities of the modern world, and finally, with the help of artists from various fields, turned their experiences into the language of dance. The culmination of the project - dance performance "Starting Point" premiered on the 9th of May 2023.
At the Tangier International University Theater Festival FITUT 2025, the play Replika (directed by Andrius Pulkauninkas) won the award for Best Ensemble Performance. The festival, which took place from November 3 to 7, brought together 12 universities from 9 countries. The amateur theater troupe of Vilnius University (VU) students was recognized alongside many troupes from art academies – future acting professionals.
In 2024, the troupe created a performance "Hommo in Maxima" intended to mark Lithuania's 20 years of membership in the European Union in a theatrical form and review Lithuanian society's development during these two decades. The performance premiered on 9th of May and was part of the activities of the CAMINO project - the main event of the Europe Day celebration at Vilnius University. Since then, the play was shown in Estonia, Spain, USA and now it's coming back home on March 29th in Vilnius.
Contacts
Artistic director: Andrius Pulkauninkas:
Student representative Roberta Skirmantaitė:
Address: Universiteto g. 3, 01131 Vilnius
Social media:
Gallery
Chamber Orchestra
The Vilnius University Chamber Orchestra is a chamber music ensemble striving for high artistic quality and, for five decades now, bringing together performers with diverse musical backgrounds. The orchestra’s artistic director and conductor is Modestas Jankūnas, under whose leadership the ensemble continuously refines its artistic mastery, expands its repertoire, pursues professionalism, actively implements creative initiatives, and participates in academic and cultural life.
The Vilnius University Chamber Orchestra is a chamber music ensemble striving for high artistic quality and, for five decades now, bringing together performers with diverse musical backgrounds. The orchestra’s artistic director and conductor is Modestas Jankūnas, under whose leadership the ensemble continuously refines its artistic mastery, expands its repertoire, pursues professionalism, actively implements creative initiatives, and participates in academic and cultural life.
The orchestra was founded in 1979 by pedagogue and flutist Paulius Bernardas Koncė, who led it until 2019. Established initially as a quartet, the ensemble grew into a chamber orchestra that became an organic part of Vilnius University’s cultural life and has honorably represented the musical potential of Lithuania’s academic community on an international level. Over the many years of its creative activity, the orchestra has become an important part of Lithuania’s musical life, actively performing in major concert halls and churches throughout the country.
One of the most important directions of the orchestra’s activity is international academic cooperation. By strengthening cultural dialogue between institutions of higher education, the ensemble carries out musical projects together with orchestras from some of Europe’s most renowned universities. Over the past decade, the musicians have performed in sacred and concert venues renowned for their exceptional acoustics in Paris, Vienna, Padua, Bologna, Rome, The Hague, Prague, Riga, and other cities. Throughout its history, the orchestra has toured not only Europe, but also countries in North and South America and Asia.
The range of the orchestra’s concert programs is truly broad. Its repertoire includes works from various eras and styles – Baroque, Galant, Classical, Romantic, Modernist, and contemporary music – as well as compositions by composers from many different countries. The orchestra frequently accompanies well-known Lithuanian and international soloists and has had the opportunity to perform under the baton of not only prominent Lithuanian conductors (Prof. Saulius Sondeckis, Modestas Pitrėnas, Modestas Barkauskas), but also the Baroque music specialist Rodrigo Calveyra (Brazil), the conductor of the Granada Youth Symphony Orchestra Gabriel Delgado (Spain), and the conductor of the Sorbonne University Symphony Orchestra Nicolas Agullo (Argentina). To document the orchestra’s artistic development, four recordings have been released, and a number of rarely performed works have been recorded for the archives of Lithuanian Radio. Each year, the ensemble also takes part in the “Culture Night” events, offering audiences late-night music programs titled Musica notturna.
A significant achievement for the orchestra was its participation in an international orchestra festival in Vienna in 2017, where it was awarded the Gold Prize and a special Honorary Diploma by the festival jury, and where it performed five preludes by M. K. Čiurlionis in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, renowned for its outstanding acoustics.
The orchestra is part of the Vilnius University Cultural Center and consistently collaborates with other ensembles belonging to the Center. Joint projects with Vilnius University academic choirs are frequent, especially in performances of large-scale works (W. A. Mozart’s Requiem, Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, Martín Palmeri’s Misa a Buenos Aires, and others). Since 2021, on the initiative of orchestra director M. Jankūnas, the concert “Generations” (Kartos) has been organized, bringing together not only current members of the orchestra but also alumni. As the ensemble was founded in the same year that Vilnius University celebrated its 400th anniversary, the tradition of the Generations concert – each time uniting the university orchestra community – allows audiences not only to celebrate the orchestra’s own history and growth, but also to festively mark the birthday of Vilnius University.
Folk Ensemble “Ratilio”
Dear EXCHANGE STUDENTS of Vilnius University!
Join our rehearsals where you will learn about Lithuanian culture from within. We will teach you to dance and you can try playing traditional Lithuanian music! We also are very interested in other cultures and would love to hear about yours.
"Ratilio" is Vilnius University's folklore ensemble with student members coming from all Lithuania's ethnic regions. An exclusive characteristic of youth as well as rapid orientation towards contemporary vicissitudes of life inspires our members' activity. Active and lively, our members come to the ensemble with little understanding of the traditional music, singing and dancing, but with great desire to explore the tradition through the embodiment of its values, which helps them to grasp the subtleties quickly and to represent Lithuanian folklore in Lithuania and beyond.
Songs, dances, and round dances are learned from folklore collections and from compatriots met during folklore expeditions. One can listen to ancient music instruments such as ragai (horns), daudytė, skudučiai (pan-pipes) and kanklės (a type of nine to five-stringed zither). A special part of their program is formed by the archaic Lithuanian folklore genre of multipart harmonious singing the sutartinė (which was added by the UNESCO to the list of intangible cultural heritage in 2010).
Vilnius University Folklore Ensemble "Ratilio" was founded in 1968. Since then many people were members of the ensemble and it now has a huge community of people from various fields who are proud to tell they are part of “Ratilio” family. The ensemble is considered one of the best and most reputed of the folklore ensembles in Lithuania. It is always referred to be the one that is aiming for professionalism and youthfulness in folk music.
Visit our website and find out more: