Katherine (Kotryna to her Lithuanian friends) became familiar with the kanklės, the Lithuanian folk
psaltery, as a member of Sodauto, the Lithuanian Ethnographic Ensemble of Boston.
The body is carved out of a single piece of wood, with a soundboard attached on top. Similar
instruments are found throughout the Baltic region: among them the kantele in Finland, the kokle
in Latvia, the kannel in Estonia, and the gusli in northwestern Russia. For an interesting overview
of the Baltic kanklės/kokle/kannel, along with some other info on Lithuanian music, check out the
article "The Singing Tree", by Valdis Muktupavels, professor of ethnomusicology at the University of
Latvia.
Sadly, the most comprehensive Web resource on the Lithuanian kanklės, the Ancient Lithuanian
Kanklės Site of Romualdas Apanavičius, has been down for some months now. A link to its old URL
is included here in hopes that it may rise again.
For now, Wikipedia offers a decent starting point.
Note that as you root around on the Web for the kanklės and its relatives, you will find that, in
addition to the basic folk instruments, there are also large "concert" or "stage" versions complete
with sharping levers and classical repertoire.
All rights reserved.