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Consulate General of Lithuania in New York invites you to jazz concert by Giedrius Nakas and Andrew Gutauskas, Tuesday, December 15, 2015 at 7 p.m. Registration by e – mail: ny.renginiai@urm.lt

Musicians will play original compositions and some jazz standards. Giedrius Nakas and Andrew Gutauskas will play together for the first time.

Giedrius Nakas is a universal young pianist, composer and arranger. He was born in 1990 in Vilnius, Lithuania. He started playing piano at the age of 7. After graduating the National M.K.Čiurlionis School of Art in 2009 he continued to study classical piano at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre with the associative professor Daumantas Kirilauskas until 2013. In 2011 he was also studying at The Royal Conservatory of the Hague with the professor Naum Grubert. In 2014 Giedrius started his jazz piano studies in the ‘New York Jazz’ master program at the Prince Claus Conservatory in Groningen with famous Dutch jazz pianists Marc van Roon and Jasper Soffers. In 2015 he studied privately with Mike Ledonne, John Escreet, Taylor Eigsti, David Kikoski, Shai Maestro and Lawrence Fields.

Giedrius became interested in jazz when he was about 15 years old: he started listening to Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock and he also started studying jazz individually. Since 2007 he has collaborated with many jazz, soul, funk, hip-hop, R’n’B, gospel bands and artists such as ‘Saulės Kliošas’, Jurga Šeduikytė, ‘Messiah goes Mad Orchestra’, ‘Big Bang Band’, ‘Re: Muzika, kuri gimė vakar’, ‘Despotin Fam’, ‘A.K. Voices’ and ‘Vilkšu pa muguru’.

He performed in a lot of projects, events, competitions and international festivals where he had a chance to play with young Lithuanian jazz masters such as Kęstutis Vaiginis, Leonardas Pilkauskas, Darius Rudis, Domas Aleksa, Aleksander Raichenoks, Liutauras Janušaitis as well as international jazz musicians like Gregory Porter, Kebbi Williams, Jermaine Williams, Isaiah Sharkey, Emanuel Harrold, Lee Pearson II, Mike Ledonne, Paul Bollenback, Matt Wilson, Adam Nussbaum, Don Braden and many more.

In 2013 Giedrius brought together his own band called “The Proof Quartet”. The band consists of young jazz musicians and plays mainly his own compositions of jazz, hip-hop, soul and electronic music.

Giedrius was performing in Lithuania almost every week for about three years before he went study in the Netherlands in 2014. He has performed as a soloist as well as with other artists and bands all around Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Russia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, USA and Italy.

Giedrius Nakas has composed music for several short films (‘Lunar Coast’, ‘No place for you’) and theatre performances (‘Lisistrata’ and ‘The Vikings of the Helgeland’).

New York based saxophonist, Andrew Gutauskas has emerged as one of the rising forces on the scene. Raised in a musically inclined family, Andrew received his Bachelor of Music from William Paterson University and then furthered his education by attending the Artist Diploma program at the Juilliard School where he studied with baritone saxophone legend, Joe Temperley.

During his career, Andrew has shared the stage with such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon, Michael Buble, Toni Braxton, Babyface, Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess, Carl Allen, Antonio Hart, Tom Harrell, Steve Wilson, Stefon Harris, Josh Redman, Gil Goldstein and many others.  Most recently, Andrew has toured and recorded with Bollywood film composers, Salim and Sulaiman Merchant.  In addition to leading his own groups, Andrew is a member of several ensembles in New York City including Lucas Pino’s No-Net Nonet, Miho Hazama’s M_Unit Band, Bill Mobley’s big band, Kyle Saulnier’s Awakening Orchestra, Sammy Miller and the Congregation Big Band, Funktion 11, Tim and the Space Cadets, The Skivvies, as well as several other bands.

Andrew has performed at many venues around New York and abroad including the Blue Note, Birdland, Jazz at Lincoln Centers Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola & Allen Room, Smalls Jazz Club, the Jazz Standard, the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center, Smoke Jazz Club, Alice Tully Hall, the O2 in London and the Queen Mary 2.  He has also performed and given educational workshops around the world at venues in the UK, Italy, Costa Rica, Brazil, Canada and Japan. In addition to performing on NBC's America's Got Talent, Andrew has made appearances on broadway with the Tony Award winning show, After Midnight and other television shows including the Oprah Winfrey Show and the Conan O’Brien Show.

A talented composer and arranger, Andrew has written music for various ensembles ranging from harp and organ duo's to woodwind quintets and small jazz ensembles to big bands and studio orchestras.