Smiltė

The junior choir “Smiltė” is a young artistic group from the Arts School of Kretinga, Lithuania. All its members love singing and care about the traditions of Lithuanian choir culture. Lilija Bakšanskienė leads the choir. The choir participants are exclusively piano students of Kretinga Arts School. It is a typical amateur group, aiming at universal musical participants and cooperation. The choir performs in different festivals in Lithuania, in the celebrations of the town and school, and in Lithuanian Song Festivals. The choir is proud of the gold medal they won in 2009 in the competition of choirs in Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Lilija Bakšanskienė was born in 1966. She studied choir conducting at the Lithuanian National Academy of Music and Theatre. Since 1990 she has been a concertmaster in the University of Klaipėda. Since 2002 she has been a teacher at Kretinga Arts School, and since 2006 she has been a conductor of the choir “Smiltė”.

Kretinga is an old town in western Lithuania near the Baltic Sea. This town, which has been known since the thirteenth century, is rich in historical and cultural heritage. In the very old centre of the town, there is a fascinating Fransiscan church complex and monastery, dating back to the seventeenth century. Today the town covers an area of 1542 hectares and has a population of about 22.000 residents.