ŠIAULIAI CITY BIG BAND AND DAUMANTS KALNIŅŠ
(Lithuania – Latvia)
The Šiauliai Big Band, loyal friends of the Birštonas Jazz festival, return after an eight-year break. This is how long the orchestra has been led by Raitis Ašmanis, a big band enthusiast from Latvia, who has already presented many different programmes in concerts with the Lithuanian orchestra.
Especially for this performance, the Big Band has put together a potpourri of jazz standards, which will introduce the Latvian vocalist Daumants Kalniņš, a winner of many international jazz competitions, and will allow the Šiauliai Big Band’s pride to shine through with strong saxophone and trombone sections.
Šiauliai became famous as a big band town as early as 1954, when three big bands were active in the city. They gave concerts, graced the programmes of festivals and celebrations. Later, the tradition was interrupted, until in 2002 it was revived by trumpeter Romualdas Sabaliauskas and conductor Romualdas Jankus. They brought together the best musicians of Šiauliai to form the Senior Residents Big Band. It was then, that the idea of an international big band festival in Šiauliai was born, and it soon became a reality.
Since its foundation in 2002, the Šiauliai Big Band has involved 19 musicians, led by Jankus. In 2006, Jaroslavas Cechanovičius joined the team and became the band’s chief artistic director and conductor. In 2009, Šiauliai Big Band gained the status of a professional jazz orchestra and started gathering capable musicians from Vilnius, Klaipėda and Šiauliai.
Today, its core members are graduates of the jazz departments of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and Klaipėda University. The band includes Lithuanian jazz masters saxophonists Juozas Kuraitis, Kęstutis Sova and Danielius Praspaliauskis, trombonists Skirmantas Sasnauskas, Valdas Surdokas and Vytautas Sakalauskas, trumpeter Dmitrijus Levencovas and others.
The orchestra has delivered programmes with almost all Lithuanian jazz vocalists, including Rūta Ščiogolevaitė, Neda Malūnavičiūtė, Kristina Svolkinaitė, Simona Jakubėnaitė, Indrė Dirgėlaitė, Rūta Švipaitė and Steponas Januška, as well as with jazz pianist Povilas Jaraminas, Panevėžys vocal group Jazz Singers, Vilnius Žvaigždžių kvartetas (Star Quartet), the group Retro, the international ensemble London Bridge Band, Viktoras Malinauskas, Romas Bubnelis and other great pop artists, the string players of the Panevėžys Chamber Orchestra and the Šiauliai Chamber Orchestra.
Since 2015, when Ašmanis started working with the Šiauliai Big Band, the orchestra’s repertoire has augmented substantially. The Latvian was a favourite of Šiauliai residents thanks to his masterful performances of the Jelgava Big Band at the Šiauliai Big Band Festival. He began to organise the Lithuanian orchestra’s intriguing thematic programmes with Lithuanian and international guest artists.
Šiauliai Big Band popularises big band music not only in Šiauliai, but also in other cities and districts of Lithuania. They take part in various festivals in Lithuania and Latvia and have performed in Sweden.
Raitis Ašmanis, the artistic director and conductor of the Šiauliai Big Band, is a renowned expert of big band and brass band music. While studying at the then Latvian State Conservatoire, he conducted brass bands in Jelgava and Kekava, and became chief conductor of the Riga Circus. Immediately after completing his studies, in 1990, he formed his own big band in Jelgava, which is still active today and has toured many countries around the world, from Europe to South America.
Ašmanis has also led big bands of the Rīga Academy of Teacher Training and Educational Management as well as the Rīga Cathedral Choir School, and in 2009–2015, he was the conductor of the Rīga professional brass band. Since 2003, he has served as the chief conductor in five Latvian Song and Dance Festivals.
Daumants Kalniņš, a jazz, popular and academic music singer and oboist, collaborates extensively with the Jelgava Big Band, led by Ašmanis. The tandem has performed the programme dedicated to Frank Sinatra alone more than 100 times.
The soloist studied oboe and jazz vocals at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Music Academy. He made his professional stage debut at the age of nine as Mozart in the Latvian National Opera’s production of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).
In 2009, Kalniņš won first prize at the Jazz Voices competition for jazz vocalists in Lithuania, in 2010, he captured the Grand Prix at the Nomme Jazz vocal competition in Estonia, and in 2015, the Grand Prix at the Rīga Jazz Stage competition.
His performances in Zigmārs Liepiņš’ melodrama Parīzes Dievmātes katedrāle (Paris Notre-Dame Cathedral) at the Latvian National Theatre, Zoika’s Apartment at the Valmiera Drama Theatre, and Imants Kalniņš’ oratorio Dzejnieks un nāra (The Poet and the Mermaid) were highly praised. In 2016, the soloist’s mastery was recognised with a nomination for the Latvian Grand Music Prize.
Kalniņš has collaborated with Raimonds Paulas, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Rīga Orchestra, the Latvian Radio Choir as well as other leading musicians and collectives in Latvia, USA, Japan, India and elsewhere. He also plays oboe in the Latvian National Opera and Ballet Theatre orchestra and in his jazz quintet.
