Vilnius folk ensemble LABINGIS
Labingis, a folk ensemble of the city of Vilnius, was founded on 7 September 2013. For more than seven years, it was led by Loreta Stoliarovienė. In 2021, Milda Ričkutė took up the baton as the artistic director of the group.
The name of the ensemble derives from the word labingas (Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language (LKŽ), source: Catholic Postil (1599) by Mikalojus Daukša), meaning ‘successful’, ‘beneficial’, or ‘doing good’. It is no coincidence, then, that Lithuanians greet each other with a cheerful “Labas!” The motto of the ensemble is “Be labingas!”
Destiny has brought together joyful, active, and youthful people of different occupations, including civil servants, musicians, teachers, economists, doctors, etc., who sing, dance, play instruments, and tell stories in their native dialects, united in their interest in Lithuanian folklore, which they have had for 10–30 years now.
The ensemble aims to foster the traditional Lithuanian culture, continuing the singing, playing, and dancing traditions. Its repertoire, therefore, includes songs, dances, instrumental music, and old Catholic folk hymns of all Lithuanian ethnographic regions. The archaic polyphonic pieces sutartinės, both vocal (sung and danced) and instrumental (played on the Lithuanian pan pipes skudučiai or the Lithuanian zither kanklės), always occupy a special place in the programmes of the group.
The members of the ensemble wear their own personal national costumes, representing all ethnographic regions of Lithuania. The group hold camps in Aukštaitija (the north-eastern region of Lithuania) every year, where they have workshops for playing traditional musical instruments, performing sutartinės and traditional dances, and learning the basics of traditional crafts.
Labingis has performed in Germany (2015), Greece (2017), Finland (2019), but mostly participates in different seasonal festivities and folk festivals in Lithuania, such as the annual international folk festival Skamba skamba kankliai, St. George’s day in Palanga, the international folk festival Baltica, the World Lithuanian Song Festival, Shrove Tuesday, Midsummer, educational events, exhibition openings, fairs, etc.
In 2018, the ensemble released a CD titled Labingas kuparas.
For more information about the ensemble, visit the website labingis.lt or the group’s Facebook page.