A three-part project created especially for the festival, featuring video projections by Aurelija Maknytė, Linas Liandzbergis, and Artūras Valiauga, as well as a live stage broadcast by Rokas Valiauga, is a tribute to the luminaries of our culture composer Bronius Kutavičius (1932-2021), poet and playwright Rolandas Rastauskas (1954-2024), and saxophonist, composer, and educator Vladimir Chekasin who inspired tonight’s jazz greats as well as many other representatives of Vilnius jazz.

B. Kutavičius’ music was performed at the Vilnius Jazz festival back in 1996 by the Vilnius New Music Ensemble led by Šarūnas Nakas. Rastauskas organized performances with Arkady Gotesman and Juozas Milašius, while Chekasin played on the Vilnius Jazz stage many times and is rightly considered one of the most important founders of the Vilnius jazz school and a symbol of Vilnius jazz.

The first part of the triptych dedicated to B. Kutavičius is akin to a canvas for passing time. “It is a conversation between a father and son. When I was asked in interviews who Bronius Kutavičius was to me, I would answer – a Magician, a Wizard. My father’s wings are so large that you can’t even see the stars through them. It is a great joy to be able to talk to my guru in all possible tones in this special evening of music,” said B. Kutavičius’ son, pianist and composer Tomas Kutavičius.

He will include excerpts from recordings of his father’s works in the triptych.

The originator of the second part of the triptych, dedicated to Rastauskas, percussion virtuoso Gotesman admitted that his partnership with Rolandas was always a journey through a genre that has no name. “Changes in word stress, the language of syncopated body movements, and the extravagant fragments of his texts – everything was different every time,” Gotesman shared his memories of their joint concerts.

In his improvised conversation with Rastauskas, the writer’s texts will be delivered by rapper Pijus Opera. 

For the third part of the triptych dedicated to Chekasin, the maestro’s disciple and long-time stage partner, saxophonist Vytautas Labutis, could come up with countless titles: Conversations with the Master, Discussion with the Teacher, From Chaos to Truth, Where is the Truth?, Is it possible? and so on. 

“I often associate Chekasin with chaos and structure, with infinity, the pursuit of the unfathomable and a certain unbidden truth, the control of chaos, the revelation of its depth and beauty, the search for truth in chaos. When listening, you might not notice the structure in his music. Only he himself knows about it and controls it, but ultimately the structure (something harmonious and orderly) has a strong effect on the audience,” said Labutis.

“Conversations with Light is a dialogue with three luminaries of Vilnius culture. Bronius Kutavičius, Rolandas Rastauskas, and Vladimir Chekasin are the Light that never fades, that is always with us and always will be,” said the project’s initiator, Vilnius Jazz producer Antanas Gustys.

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, pedagogue Vytautas Labutis is also one of Lithuania’s most prominent jazz masters. His name is associated with the biographies of many of Lithuania’s most renowned jazz groups: Petras Vyšniauskas Quartet, Džiazo nublokšti Quintet, Shinkarenko Jazz4 and Shinkarenko Jazz5, Dainius Pulauskas groups, Vilnius Jazz Quartet, Lithuanian Jazz Trio, and others.

The talented musician is at home in both chamber and monumental jazz forms. He writes music for large ensembles and performs in duos, juggling a wide range of musical styles and expression means.

The musician has travelled extensively throughout Europe with his quartet, which has been active for more than 20 years, playing music ranging from funk to free jazz. The album Sounding City, released by the quartet with vocalist Neda Malūnavičiūtė, was presented in Barcelona, Madrid, Stockholm, Budapest, Gdansk and at the famous Jazz Jamboree festival in Warsaw.

Vytautas and Neda have been working together since 1990. Five years ago, they were joined by a young and creative pianist Richardas Banys, and a new and exciting trio shone on the Lithuanian jazz scene.
Labutis was part of Vladimir Tarasov’s The Lithuanian Art Orchestra, Lithuanian Young Composers Orchestra, the international projects JazzBaltica Ensemble, Octet Ost, East-West Vapirov Project, New European Saxophone Quartet and Moscow Composers Orchestra. Whoever he plays with, he adds his own flavour to the music. He has toured Europe with various ensembles, performed in Asia, the USA and Australia, and recorded more than fifty CDs.

The jazz master also takes part in experimental, contemporary academic and ethno-music projects, artistic performances, composes music for film and theatre, and educates the younger generation of jazz musicians at the Balys Dvarionas Music School. His pupils win prizes in national and international jazz competitions.

Back in 1996, Labutis’ contributions to Lithuanian jazz were recognized with the Grand Prix of the Birštonas Festival.

Composer and pianist Tomas Kutavičius has experience in both jazz and academic music. Tomas received education in both fields at the National M.K. Čiurlionis School of Art, Vilnius Conservatoire and the LAMT. At the latter he studied composition.

As a composer, he combines elements of both jazz and academic music in an idiosyncratic way. As a performer he excels at keyboards and vocal. The audience of the most important jazz festivals in Lithuania was convinced of that many times. The musician has also toured with various formations in many European countries, USA and Japan.

On jazz scene Tomas has collaborated with Petras Vyšniauskas, Arkady Gotesman, Juozas Milašius, Eugenijus Kanevičius, Skirmantas Sasnauskas, Arūnas Šlaustas, Dalius Naujokaitis, Vytautas Labutis, Vladimir Tarasov, Vladimir Chekasin, Klaus Kugel, Theo Jörgensmann, Jacques Siron, Jana Koubkova and Anatoly Vapirov among many other celebrities.

Among his solo jazz projects noteworthy are Conversations With My Soul (1991), Magister Ludi (2001) and Autumn Chant (2004).

T. Kutavičius’ academic opuses receive critical acclaim and draw interest from performers. His Concerto Divine Rampage for piano and symphony orchestra was voted to be “The Best Work of 2013”, the opera for children Dwarf Nose composed for Kaunas State Musical Theatre was awarded Kaunas city “Fortuna” prize, and his music for project A Journey of the theatre studio Ąžuolas – the Grand Prix at the International Theatre Festival in Grenoble.

Tomas Kutavičius has composed operas, a ballet, musicals for children, and incidental music for various theatre productions in Lithuania as well as the Tokyo Dora Theatre Company. His academic music, like jazz, is temperamental, filled with a flair of improvisation.

Juozas Milašius has been ranked among the most ingenious and radical Lithuanian guitarists, jazz musicians, composers and initiators of various performances. For almost four decades the conceptualist and experimenter has investigated possibilities of the guitar in his solo performances and diverse projects involving renowned improvisers, electronic music composers and sound artists.

The guitarist stormed the Lithuanian jazz scene in 1986 taking aback the audiences with avalanches of sound and ideas. He made his debut with Petras Vyšniauskas Quartet.

By the end of the ‘80s Milašius’ discovered the platform for his artistic experiments in a duo with drummer Dalius Naujokaitis. Yet another laboratory for his discoveries was The Lithuanian Young Composers Orchestra, which he formed with likeminded colleagues. The aforementioned projects bore a resemblance to performance genre.

His bent for sound experiments prompted Milašius to form guitar ensembles Gitarmanija (1989), Auksinės gitaros (1998), Milašius Power Band (2019); it is showcased in his solo albums j.m.eilė (2002) and Slow (2009), as well as in P (2016), his collaborative album with Darius Čiuta, and other projects, documented in albums Kab_Lys (2015), Sun Sun Up (2016), Upė (2018) and Electric & Acoustic (2019).

The guitarist has composed soundtracks for films It Snows in Heaven Too (1994) and Journey into the Night (2003), with colleagues directed a theatre production based on Kōbō Abe’s novel Woman in the Dunes, in which he also acted.
An uncompromising musician Milašius collaborated with Vladimir Chekasin, Vytautas Labutis and Vladimir Tarasov’s ensembles, as well as with Tomas Kutavičius, Skirmantas Sasnauskas, Jonas Mekas, Darius Čiūta and other performers of experimental electronic music.

He has also appeared in international formations with Jim Meneses, Martin Schutz, Hans Koch, Fredy Studer, Sainkho Namchilak, Ned Rothenberg, Lindsay Cooper, Jimmy Owens, Dror Feiler, Luc Houtkamp, Kouhei Matsunaga, Sabir Mateen and Saadet Turkoz among others.

As a member of various ensembles Milašius has performed in a number of jazz and contemporary music and art festivals in Italy, Poland, Estonia, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Austria.

In 2008, the guitarist was honoured with Vilnius Jazz Award for contributions to Lithuanian jazz.

Pijus Opera is a distinctive rap artist of the younger generation, one of the most prominent proponents of freestyle rap in Lithuania, a poet, and a songwriter. In 2021, he was recognized as the national champion of rap improvisation. In 2023, he created a continuous 10-hour rap improvisation at the Vilnius Book Fair’s Music Hall. Among the rapper’s most interesting projects is a modern interpretation of the Baroque poetry of Motiejus Kazimieras Sarbievijus, presented this summer in the courtyard of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania together with keyboardist Vitalij Neugasimov and Arkady Gotesman.

Flutist Kristupas Gikas is active on contemporary, improvised, and experimental music scene. He completed his master’s degree in contemporary music and improvisation at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LAMT), having previously studied classical flute at the M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art and LAMT, and sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the Netherlands. 

The artist is interested in different musical traditions and styles, blurring their boundaries, combining acoustic and electronic sound in his work. Kristupas is also exploring the possibilities of electroacoustic music in his doctoral studies at the LAMT.

In music, Gikas seeks a balance between intuition and logic; often applies elements of game. He excels not only in various flutes, but also a saxophone, a computer, dambrelis (Jew’s harp) and even a turntable – he often spins records as DJ Extended.

This is the pseudonym under which the improviser has been performing for eight years with fellow saxophonist Kazimieras Jušinskas. Their duo has appeared not only in Lithuania, but also in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria. Kristupas is also a member of the improvised music group Ferry Good Company (formerly Laivo troupe) and Fleitų 3, and plays in the Improdimensija Orchestra.

Arkady Gotesman, one of the most resourceful and versatile Lithuanian percussionists and composers, is also enjoying repute as a poet, theatre director, pedagogue, producer, Spiritus Movens of Vilnius Klezmer Orchestra and artistic director of Utena Percussion and Jazz Festival.

He composes, records and performs music for theatre, writes scenarios for musical performances and installations, organises projects with dancers, writers, actors and visual artists, appears in personal shows.

Free jazz and improvised music is the element of this alchemist of sound. His work embraces poetry, magic, and unusual combinations of instruments.

Gotesman has a gift to discover new venues for jazz in periphery and enrich his projects with the participation of the world’s jazz luminaries. He has collaborated with exponents of various trends including Roland Dahinden, Arkady Shilkloper, Julian Joseph, John Zorn, Frank London, Anthony Coleman, Charles Gayle, Tim Daisy, Joey Baron, Barry Guy, Dominic Duval, Dave Douglas, Albert Beger, Martin Küchen, Mark Tokar, Warren Smith, Andrew Lamb, Mats Gustafsson, Kresten Osgood, Christian Lillinger, Freddy Studer, Mark Sanders, Peter Broon, Nate Wooley, Byron Wallen.

In Lithuania the percussionist has regularly been working with Vyacheslav Ganelin, Petras Vyšniauskas, Vladimir Tarasov, Dmitrij Golovanov and Jan Maksimovich.

Gotesman is an enthusiast of silent movies, as a taper with various international musicians he promulgates the genre in Lithuania.

The percussionist also plays contemporary academic music. He has performed world premieres of works by Osvaldas Balakauskas, Anatolijus Šenderovas, Zita Bružaitė and Šarūnas Nakas among others.

In 2018, Gotesman was honoured with Birštonas International Festival Grand Prix, and in 2015 – was presented with Vilnius Jazz Award for contributions to Lithuanian jazz.