Vytautas Straižys and the freedom to play quietly

Downtown Piano Lab opened a concert hall in Vilnius’s Europa shopping centre in November 2025. Reporting on the opening, Made in Vilnius described an ambition to preserve the close relationship between musicians and listeners. The pianist behind the project, Vytautas Straižys, had already offered a more tangible description of that relationship.

“We can play pianissimo,” he told LRT’s Nepaprasti žmonės programme in 2024, discussing concerts in his Vilnius apartment. The audience’s silence made very soft playing possible. Sitting close to the piano was only part of the arrangement; paying attention gave the musician room to lower the volume.

That setting should not be mistaken for a single repertoire. Straižys’s official programme list ranges from solo and quartet projects devoted to Bill Evans to film music and duets with singers. Alone, a pianist carries the whole piece. With other players, there is room to accompany, take a solo or let someone else’s part come forward.

He studied classical piano at Lithuania’s National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art and jazz in The Hague and Rotterdam. Both remain in his programmes: one places Chopin, Debussy and Rachmaninoff alongside Oscar Peterson.

A new hall cannot answer the old question on its own. When the instrument grows quieter, are the listeners still with it?

Editorial note: Vytautas Straižys founded Downtown Piano Lab, the publisher of RUBATO. This article draws on public sources and is not a new interview.