Over the weekend, continuing its 35th anniversary program, the Vilnius State Small Theatre invited the audience to a staged birthday party in a musical-poetic frenzy. The theatre was greeted by the NoJo Airlines orchestra of more than fifty musicians, formed by the exceptionally talented and artistic Lithuanian percussionist, composer and conductor Dalius Naujokaitis-Naujs (JAV).
"Playing in the theater is fantastic! It's a unique place. In preparation for the birthday concert, we rehearsed the musical part, and we gave the theatrical event more freedom. There are many people, distinctive characters and young people playing in the orchestra, such a composition immediately attracts attention. It is extremely interesting to watch how they react to each other every time and in what direction they direct the course of the concert, which we never thought about in advance," says D. Naujokaitis-Naujo about the unconventional birthday greeting.
The theater hall became a runway for one evening for a crew of more than fifty pilots and passengers, overcome by festive madness, assembled by D. Naujokaitis-Naujs. The NoJo Airlines orchestra, which performs with a different lineup each time, creates a musical and stage adventure with each performance, crossing different countries and continents.
This time, the festive flight was joined by a group of D. Naujokaitis-Naujas' friends from the circle of filmmaker, poet, curator, and film critic Jonas Mekas, into which the jazz musician entered after settling in New York in 1995. The Vilnius Little Theatre was greeted by the extraordinary Italian artist Giuseppe Zevola, painter Eugenijus Varkulevičius-Varkalis, and filmmaker and poet Julius Ziz.
The friendship of the Vilnius Small Theatre with D. Naujokaitis began with one of the largest and most original theatre projects of recent times – the joint performance “Infinity” (2022) by director G. Tuminaitė and the “NoJo Airlines Orchestra”. In the performance-concert, the theme of the struggle between good and evil, accompanied by a musical performance that transcends the usual genres and performance methods, opened up not a primitively actualized, but a deeper and broader semantic plane of these fundamental themes. The improvisation of the “NoJo Airlines” orchestra became a creative and order-restoring force, which will return with a new sound in the festive concert.
Dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the State Vilnius Small Theatrethis one NoJo Airlines Orchestra in concertą partially rtook Arunas Martinkevicius.
