Pažaislis Festival invites you to an extraordinary musical encounter with this year’s Grammy Award-winning American jazz star Nicole Zuraitis.

NICOLE ZURAITIS, who was born in the USA but has Lithuanian roots, is not only a talented pianist and composer who has released three solo albums, but also a vocalist of the world-famous Birdland Big Band and a member of the faculty of the Litchfield Jazz Camp, where she conducts 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, Danielius Zuraitis, who emigrated to the USA with his parents, Juozapas and Ona, in 1909.

She will perform with KAUNAS BIG BAND at the Pažaislis Festival. 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 is always looking for unexpected connections. Audiences have enjoyed memorable programmes with violin virtuoso and composer Line Kruse (Denmark), pianist Peter Beets (Netherlands), singer Claire Martin (UK), rising Finnish star Maja Mannila, the 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 the Kaunas Big Band and the concert institution “Kauno santaka”.N. Zuraitis and the Kaunas Big Band will add to the musical panorama of Pažaislis with popular jazz melodies and original compositions by the artist. They will be playfully joined by VYTAUTAS GRUBLIAUSKAS, a trumpeter and vocalist known as the Lithuanian Armstrong, who has a long-standing friendship with the jazz singer. This musician will undoubtedly enhance and heat up the atmosphere of the concert with his characteristic intonation twists and expressive peaks.

Jazz is always a journey, always an adventure, because you don’t know what is around the corner. Let’s get ready for this adventure and meet it on 28 June in the courtyard of Pažaislis Monastery.

After the festival, you will find a recording of the concert here: