The Return of the Century-Old Kanklės Sound: Stories and Reconstruction

We invite you to a meeting with Skalmantas Barkauskas (Babtai, Kaunas District) and Albertas Martinaitis (Šiauliai), makers and restorers of the kanklės and various other traditional Lithuanian musical instruments. You will hear the stories behind the return of the kanklės from Tursučiai village (Marijampolė County), which were exhibited at the 1900 Paris World's Fair, learn about the creation of their reconstructions, and hear them play. The meeting will also feature a video presentation by Silvestras Samsonas on the crafting of these reconstructions and their significance to the collection of the National Museum of Lithuania. Skalmantas Barkauskas (born May 17, 1994, in Babtai, Kaunas District) is a maker of traditional Lithuanian musical instruments and a professional sculptor who graduated from the Kaunas Faculty of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. As a child, he carved wooden household utensils, trying to tame the wood, with no idea that he would one day become an instrument maker. After discovering this craft, he had the opportunity to meet masters Algimantas Sakalauskas and Jonas Bugailiškis. Before finishing school, he visited their workshops, showed them his carvings, and sought their advice. They encouraged him to enroll in the Academy of Arts. He made his first kanklės at the age of fourteen, and today he has made around four hundred. For two decades, he has been contributing to the preservation of the kanklės as living history. Skalmantas makes and restores kanklės, and teaches others how to do it. He also makes and plays various other instruments, including log drums, frame drums, tambourines, dulcimers, basedlas (traditional double bass), reed pipes, and panpipes. He presents his instrument replicas at events and instrument makers' fairs in Lithuania and abroad. He has also created a unique set of stone kanklės. Albertas Martinaitis (born July 21, 1953, in Kelmė) is a folk artist and ethnographer. The master carves and crafts kanklės, panpipes, and various drums, plays the accordion and kanklės, and makes various metal household utensils. The master has made thousands of...

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