Jazz in the City | GAJA and Vytautas Straižys
GAJA · vocals · Vytautas Straižys · piano
On the evening of 24 October, the warm, emotional vocals of GAJA and the virtuosic piano playing of Vytautas Straižys will meet on the Downtown Piano Lab stage. “Jazz in the City” is a live and elegant jazz evening in which music is not merely performed, but is created right there, before the audience. GAJA is one of the most gifted jazz vocalists of the younger generation. Having studied jazz vocals at the Klaipėda Stasys Šimkus Conservatoire, the performer is distinguished by her warm vocal timbre, emotional expression and courage to improvise. She won third place in the vocal category at the international young jazz performers' festival-competition “Jazz Fontanas 2024”, and later appeared on one of the country's biggest jazz stages – the Klaipėda Castle Jazz Festival. At the piano is pianist, singer and Downtown Piano Lab founder Vytautas Straižys. A graduate of the M. K. Čiurlionis School of Arts, with a master's degree from the Royal Conservatoire in the Netherlands and the “CodArts” Academy in Rotterdam, Vytautas brings together the subtlety of classical harmony, the freedom of jazz and exceptional musical sensitivity in his music. His concert programmes are heard both in intimate club spaces and in Lithuania's major halls. Aistė and Vytautas have already performed together – their duet is distinguished by natural stage chemistry and an ability to respond sensitively to each other. Voice and piano become equal conversational partners here: one melody may sound fragile and intimate, another – free, rhythmic and energetic. The evening's programme will blend the colours of jazz, soul and R&B, time-tested melodies, unexpected interpretations and improvisations that make every live performance singular and unrepeatable. This is a concert for those who long for real live music, a close connection with the performers and an evening after which there is still no desire to hurry home. The Dainykla project is partly funded by Vilnius City Municipality.