About organisation
The folk group “Virvytė” of Vilnius City at the Corporation of the Academic Samogitian Youth “Samogitia” (founded in 1995 and led by ethnomusicologist Loreta Sungailienė) is a community of young families, fostering the traditional culture both on stage and in daily life. The group unites 23 families – around 70 people from 3 to 48 years of age (36 children among them). In 2017 “Virvytė” was announced the best folk group of the city and the laureate of the prestigious award for amateur art groups – “Gold Bird”. At performances members of the group dress in unique, often self-made or decorated traditional national costumes of different Lithuanian regions. The repertoire of the group consists of authentic folklore of different Lithuanian regions, especially focusing on traditional music, polyphonic songs and traditional dances of the Samogitia region. The group has released 3 CDs and a DVD, has prepared various programmes, dedicated to Calendar, family celebrations and rituals, various local folklore traditions of the Samogitia region, also thematic and educational programmes. For more than 10 years the group organises ethno-cultural learning camps for young families. The group constantly participates in the Folklore Day programmes of the Lithuanian Song and Dance Celebrations, international folklore festivals.
Projects
Since 2014 annually in August a three-day ethno-cultural learning camp for young families has been organised. In 2015 at the Presidential Palace of Lithuania the folk group organised the educational performance to present the Samogitian traditional music “Aš tou suodna skinsio”, dedicated to the National Year of Ethnographic Regions. In 2017 the project “Presentation of traditions of the Lithuanian ethnographic regions at the international celebrations Nordic and Baltic Midsummer 2015” was implemented. In 2018 the folk group performed the concert “Dovanos mūsų” at the Vilnius Teachers House. The same years it cooperated with the Centre of Regional Cultural Initiatives in compiling and publishing the anthology of Samogitian literature “Žemaičiai”. From 2016 in cooperation with the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library 18 cultural educational programmes (“The joy of traditional culture for a family”, “The legends of the seaside told and sung”, “A lily in blossom on the Easter morning”, “Particularities of the Shrovetide customs and folklore”, “Customs and folklore of the spring time celebrations”, “How Lithuanians play” and other) has been performed in the Library, schools and communities of Vilnius. In spring 2019 the group organised the game “Etnoprotmūšis” (a quiz-type game) at the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library.
