Petras Vyšniauskas (born 11 June 1957 in

Plungė Plungė (; Samogitian: ''Plongė'') is a city in Lithuania with 17,252 inhabitants. Plungė is known for Plungė Manor and its park, Samogitian Art Museum. In the Oginskiai manor park stands the Perkūnas oak a natural monument. The Lourdes o ...

) is a

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

multi-instrumentalist (mainly

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

) of Modern Creative

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and a university teacher as a music teacher at the

Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre The Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania, is a state-supported conservatory that trains students in music, theatre, and multimedia arts. History Composer Juozas Naujalis founded a music school in 1919 in Kaunas. This ...

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

Life

Vysniauskas has previously worked with such musicians as Steve Lacy,

Han Bennink Han Bennink (born 17 April 1942) is a Dutch drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured him playing soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, trombone, violin, banjo and piano. Though perhaps best known as one of the pivotal fig ...

Jon Christensen Jon Christensen may refer to: * Jon Christensen (musician) Jon Ivar Christensen (20 March 1943 – 18 February 2020) was a Norwegian jazz drummer. He was married to actress, minister, and theater director Ellen Horn, Store Norske Leksikon (in ...

Kent Carter Kent Carter (born June 14, 1939 in Hanover, New Hampshire) is an American jazz bassist. His father, Alan Carter, founded the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. He is also the grandson of American artist, Rockwell Kent. He worked in Steve Lacy's group, ...

, Tomas Kutavičius,

Elliott Sharp Elliott Sharp (born March 1, 1951) is an American contemporary classical composer, multi-instrumentalist, and performer. A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City since the late 1970s, Sharp has released ...

Paul Jeffrey Paul Jeffrey (April 8, 1933 – March 20, 2015) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, arranger, and educator. He was a member of Thelonious Monk's regular group from 1970–1975, and also worked extensively with other musicians such as Charles ...

, the

Rova Saxophone Quartet Rova Saxophone Quartet is an American, San Francisco-based saxophone quartet, formed in October 1977. The name "Rova" is an acronym formed from the last initials of the founding members: Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Andrew Voigt, and Bruce Ackley. Wh ...

Charlie Mariano Carmine Ugo Mariano (November 12, 1923 – June 16, 2009) was an American jazz saxophonist who focused on the alto and soprano saxophone. He occasionally performed and recorded on flute and nadaswaram as well. Biography Mariano was born in ...

Karl Berger Karl Hans Berger (born March 30, 1935 in Heidelberg, Germany) is a German jazz pianist, composer, and educator. Career Berger played piano in Germany when he was ten and worked in his teens at a club in Heidelberg. He learned modern jazz from v ...

Bobo Stenson Bobo Stenson (born Bo Gustav Stenson; 4 August 1944) is a Swedish jazz pianist. The Bobo Stenson Trio, formed in collaboration with Anders Jormin (bass) and Jon Fält (drums), has been in existence for four decades. Career Stenson studied with We ...

, Reiner Winterschladen,

Hilliard Greene Hilliard Greene (born February 26, 1958) is an American bassist (playing both double bass, and bass guitar) specializing in modern creative, improvised, and jazz music, as well as a music educator. Life and work Hilliard Greene studied at the B ...

Vijay Iyer Vijay Iyer (born October 26, 1971) is an American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer and writer based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' has called him a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, histori ...

Robert Dick Robert Dick (January 1811 – 24 December 1866), was a Scottish geologist and botanist. Life He was born at Tullibody, in Clackmannanshire. His father was an officer of excise in nearby Alloa. At the age of thirteen, after receiving a good e ...

, John Lindberg,

Eric Vloeimans Eric Vloeimans (; born 24 March 1963) is a Dutch musician, songwriter, and record producer. Biography Although he studied classical music as a child, he became interested in jazz at the Rotterdam Academy of Music. After graduating in 1988, he ...

, Mark Tokar and others. Together with Klaus Kugel he recorded the film music for the German movie Leni. Both have been members of

Vyacheslav Ganelin Vyacheslav (Slava) Ganelin ( he, ויאצ'סלב (סלבה) גנלין , lt, Viačeslavas Ganelinas, russian: Вячеслав Шевелевич Гане́лин; born 17 December 1944) is a Lithuanian–Israeli jazz pianist, composer, and ped ...

's Ganelin Trio Priority since 1999. In 1999 he appeared in

Theo Jörgensmann Theodor Franz Jörgensmann (born 29 September 1948) is a German jazz clarinetist. Activities Theo Jörgensmann belongs to the second generation of European free jazz musicians. He was part of the clarinet renaissance in the jazz and improvisin ...

Sextett in Wuppertal (Fellowship). He also directs the quartet Poksis with Lithuanian guitarist Juozas Milasius, Russian double bass player Vladimir Volkov and drummer Klaus Kugel. Currently Vysniauskas plays in the Vilnius Power Trio with Juozas Milasius and drummer Dalius Naujokaitis. The Vilnius-based musician combines the music of his Lithuanian homeland with modern sounds and is one of the musicians who set important accents in European jazz. Critic

Bert Noglik Bert Noglik (born 20 May 1948) is a German jazz journalist and music critic. Life Born in Leipzig, Noglik studied cultural studies at the University of Leipzig and received his doctorate on environmental design in urban space in 1974. He has be ...

wrote about Petras Vysniauskas: "His music breathes some of the austere beauty of the Lithuanian landscape and the passion of many of his compatriots. It was the music of Petras Vysniauskas, which I remembered for its clear, individual conception". Vysniauskas by his own account "in Lithuanian folk songs,

ears An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists o ...

echoes of the music of

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...

", which he tries to combine with the free expression of today's jazz. Critic Howard Mandel of the

Jazz Journalists Association The Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) is an international organization of all types of media professionals who document, promulgate, or appreciate jazz. As of 2016, it has approximately 250 members, including professional journalists, students, ind ...

has described him as "one of the most profoundly original musicians concentrating on he soprano saxophone. From 1988 to 2003 he was senior assistant, from 2003 lecturer and now professor at the Music and Theater Academy of Lithuania. He is one of the most acclaimed musicians of his country, having been decorated with multiple awards, including Musician of the Year of the Soviet Union in the 1980s,

Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas The Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas is the Lithuanian Presidential Award which was re-instituted to honour the citizens of Lithuania for outstanding performance in civil and public offices. Foreign nationals may also be awarded this O ...

, the Lithuanian National Arts and Culture Prize, the Baltic Assembly Prize for the Arts and the award of the

Vilnius Jazz Festival The Vilnius Jazz Festival is a jazz festival held in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 2018, it was held for the 31st time; the programme included: Nate Wooley’s Knknighgh Quartet, Shai Maestro Trio, Sofia Jernberg, Vincent Courtois Vincent Courtois ...

. His son is the trumpeter Dominykas Vysniauskas and his daughter the singer Marija Vysniauskaite, with whom he performs as ''Cherry Trio''.

Discography (selection)

* ''Viennese Concert'' (

Leo Records Leo Records is a British record company and label which releases jazz from Russian, American, and British musicians. It concentrates on free jazz. Leo Records was founded in 1979 by Leo Feigin (also known under his broadcasting name Aleksei Le ...

, 1989) * ''Lithuania'' (ITM, 1990) with Arkadij Gotesman * Vysniauskas-Christoph Baumann-Siron: ''Nuit Balte'' (1994) * ''Fellowship'' (1999) with

and Klaus Kugel * Petras Vysniauskas Quartet ''Light In The Dark'' (2003) * Baltic Trio ''Live at Jazz Welten Dresden 2005'' (2005) with Vladimir Volkov and Klaus Kugel * Ganelin Trio Priority ''Visions'' (2007) with

and Klaus Kugel

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vyšniauskas, Petras 1957 births Living people Avant-garde jazz musicians Lithuanian musicians Academic staff of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre Lithuanian film score composers Male film score composers Musicians from Vilnius Recipients of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas Male jazz musicians