KAUNO BIGBENDAS
Conductor Tomas Botyrius
Concert guest VYTAUTAS GRUBLIAUSKAS (trumpet)

The Pažaislis Festival is pleased to invite you to an extraordinary musical encounter with this year's Grammy Award-winning American jazz star Nicole Zuraitis.

 American-born but Lithuanian-rooted NICOLE ZURAITIS is not only a talented pianist and composer who has released three solo albums, but also a vocalist with the world-renowned Birdland Big Band and a member of the faculty of the Litchfield Jazz Camp, where she teaches songwriting and jazz vocal workshops around the world. Zuraitis is a winner of numerous jazz competitions and has collaborated with Cyrille Aimee, Thana Alexa, Dave Stryker, Tom Chapin, Omar Hakim, Melanie Safka, Helen Sung, and others throughout her musical career. Her latest modern jazz album Hive Mind, released in 2018, won the International Award for Best Jazz Album, and her own version of Dolly Parton's Jolene, co-written with her husband, musician Dan Pugach, was nominated for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanied by a Vocalist(s) at the prestigious Grammys. Thanks to her charisma, strong vocals and deeply moving performances, N. Zuraitis, who is a great favourite of her compatriots living in the USA, can today be proud of her Lithuanian heritage thanks to her grandfather, Daniūnas Zuraitis, who emigrated to the USA with his parents, Juozapas and Ona, in 1909. Zuraitis is still in contact with the Lithuanian Consulate in New York and participates in various events organised by them and Lithuanians in the USA. Her recording "How Love Begins" became the best vocal jazz album and brought her her first Grammy Award.

 At the Pažaislis Festival, she will perform with KAUNO BIGBENDAS. This ensemble is an active participant of Lithuanian musical life and jazz festivals, original programmes, and collaborates with the country's best jazz instrumentalists and vocalists, as well as guests from abroad. Now in its fourth decade, the big band seeks unexpected connections every time. The programmes with violin virtuoso and composer Line Kruse (Denmark), pianist Peter Beets (Netherlands), singer Claire Martin (UK), rising Finnish star Maja Mannila, theatrical singer and composer Hilde Louise Asbjørnsen (Norway), the intelligent French jazz singer David Linx, etc. These are just a few of the musical events of the last year, presented by Kaunas Big Band and the concert institution "Kauno santaka".