Renowned jazz musicians—Kęstutis Vaiginis (Lithuania, saxophone), Joonas Haavisto (Finland, piano), and Michail Baranski (Poland, double bass)—will perform original compositions by Kęstutis Vaiginis at the Magic of Music Club. These performers from different countries promise to captivate the audience with enchanting musical compositions, their unique playing styles, virtuosity, and radiant vitality.
Kęstutis Vaiginis is one of the most prolific jazz performers in Lithuania. An ambitious saxophonist who has performed with top-tier U.S. jazz musicians such as Alex Sipiagin, Jonathan Blake, Dave Kikoski, Boris Kozlov, Donald Edwards, David Berkman, and others, is the inspiration and leader behind numerous international projects. As a bandleader and guest artist with various ensembles, he has performed at the “Nord Sea Jazz,” Rotterdam, London, Ottawa, Cape Town, Tokyo, Istanbul, Hong Kong, and other prestigious jazz festivals, and has toured across Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa. Every year in Lithuania, he organizes concert tours across the country featuring guest artists from the United States and the most renowned European jazz musicians. Kęstutis Vaiginis was awarded the “Europamusicale” prize by the European Cultural Foundation, which is awarded once a year to a single European musician. K. Vaiginis became the first recipient of the “Europamusicale” Music Prize from the European Cultural Foundation (2013).
Michał Barański is a Polish jazz double bassist. Barański is the Grand Prix winner of the 40th “Jazz nad Odrą” festival; he also won the main prize at the 3rd “Swinging Raven” competition during the Hot Jazz Spring festival in Częstochowa and the “Jazz Angel” award at the Bielska Zadymka festival in 2005. Together with the group Triology, he took 4th place at the international jazz band competition “Jazz Hoeilaart” in Belgium. He is the recipient of two “Fryderyk” awards (the Polish “Grammy”) for the albums Assymetry (Zbigniew Namysłowski) and Umiera piękno (Aga Zaryan). In 2015, he was nominated for a “Fryderyk” award in the Jazz Artist of the Year category. Throughout his career, Barański has collaborated with many renowned artists, including Bennie Maupin, Dayna Stephens, Dan Tepfer, Nigel Kennedy, Zbigniew Namysłowski, Tomasz Stańko, Michał Urbaniak, David Dorůžka, Vladislav Sendecki, Derrick McKenzie, Bernard Maseli, Piotr Wojtasik, Adam Bałdych, and Aga Zaryan. He also recorded the album Early Reflections with jazz legend Bennie Maupin (known for his work with Miles Davis on the album Bitches Brew and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters). This album took second place in the JazzTimes critics’ poll for Best Album of 2008.
Joonas Haavisto is a Finnish pianist and composer. He is considered one of the most intriguing jazz musicians of the younger generation on the Nordic jazz scene. In May 2017, Joonas joined the world-renowned roster of “Steinway Artists” and has won several prizes at international competitions, including the “Jazz Improvizacija 2006” solo piano competition, “Young Nordic Jazz Comets 2007,” and “Jazz Hoeilaart 2010.” He was also a semifinalist in the “Nottingham International Jazz Piano Competition 2010.” With his bands, Joonas has performed throughout Europe, the U.S., Canada, and Japan. As a soloist, Joonas has performed with some of Finland’s finest chamber orchestras—The Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra and The Chamber Orchestra of Lapland. He has also performed with the renowned Finnish big band UMO and orchestras such as the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and the Pori Sinfonietta. Joonas has performed with some of the world’s finest jazz musicians, including Jerry Bergonzi, Jonathan Kreisberg, Tivon Pennicott, Michael Formanek, John Fedchock, and others. In recent years, he has also composed for chamber orchestras, big bands, solo piano, pop music artists, and feature films. Joonas composed and performed the piano music for the film The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki, which won the top prize in the “Un Certain Regard” section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and was submitted by Finland as its official entry for the 2016 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.