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The Kazickas Family Foundation was established in 1998.

Tuesday, September 11, 2018 –

Today is the last concert of the Kazickas Family Sacred Hours of Summer 2018 series.

The Kazickas family has been honored to have this special relationship with prof. L. Digrys,

R. Marcinkute-Lesieur and their team who have been committed to organ music, its culture and tradition in Lithuania, and also to all of you who have been coming to the concerts in St. Casimir church for years.

Gratitude goes out to all the wonderful performers of the Sacred Hours summer concerts of 2018 which celebrated 100 years of the Independence of Lithuania and 100 years of Dr. J. P. Kazickas (1918-2014).

Let’s not forget that 2018 also marks 55 years since prof. L. Digrys started the tradition of  the Sacred Music hour on Sundays at 1pm in Vilnius Cathedral in 1963. It was there that Alexandra Kazickas (1920-2011) during her first trip to Lithuania after 31 years, heard prof. Digrys play on Sunday of 9/28/1975 and wrote in her letter to her beloved husband back in New York: “Early Sunday morning. We got up and went to church. I wanted to go to St. Nicholas church. On our way, we stopped at the Cathedral since at 1 o’clock the famous Leopoldas Digrys played an organ concert. Again, people were flowing in as if it was a festivity. There were no places to sit down.” It sounds so familiar, as if nothing has changed for the past 55 years, to this day, during the organ music concerts there are no empty seats- sometimes with people sitting on the floor just to hear the music.   

The Kazickas family’s love for the organ music had never faded, as in 2003, the Oberlinger Organ (the finest in Eastern Europe) was finally installed in St. Casimir’s  thanks to funds donated by  Dr. J. P. Kazickas and his nephew Mr. G. Gruodis. The same year,

Dr. J. P. Kazickas became a patron of the Summer Sacred Music Hours within the Christopher Summer Festival. Again, 2018 marks 15 years of the beautiful music played on the Oberlinger Organ here in St. Casimir church during the Summer Sacred Music Hours.

As it also happens, today marks 20 years since the day on 9/11/1998 the Kazickas Family Foundation was founded in New York, USA with an office in Vilnius. Over two decades, the Kazickas family has given out more than 11 mln USD for Lithuanian causes in the diaspora and various organizations in Lithuania. Each year it supports more than 70 charities dedicated to building a brighter future for the people of Lithuania.   

When remembering our Father Dr. J.P.Kazickas, founder of the Kazickas Family Foundation, President V.Adamkus wrote: “For us, J.Kazickas remains a perfect example of decency, dedication and sincerity, strong beliefs and meaningful life. A true philanthropist as this when translated from Greek means “loving humanity”. J. Kazickas was such in his life(…) When it came to working, giving support, showing initiative or otherwise helping Lithuania, he was an active and generous citizen of his country, on hundreds of occasions. (…) To him, working for Lithuania was a self-evident duty for life with no expectations of exceptional gratitude or exclusive respect. His professional activity has always had a more important dimension – humanism, service and solidarity with other people.”

While remembering all the beautiful festivities of 2018, the Kazickas Family dedicates this concert and President V.Adamkus’s words to all of YOU for your solidarity with other people including the Kazickas Family Foundation, for your humanism, and service, for your lifelong work, faith, love of humanity and commitment to Lithuania.  

- Jurate, Joseph, Michael and John Kazickas