Vytis Nivinskas
Vytis Nivinskas is a jazz bassist, composer, educator, and artistic researcher who has been an active presence on the Lithuanian and international jazz scene for more than three decades. His music is characterized by a rich and expressive double bass sound, improvisational freedom, distinctive articulation, and a focus on the instrument’s timbral and melodic possibilities.
Since making his jazz debut in 1994, Nivinskas has collaborated with numerous Lithuanian and international jazz and contemporary music artists and has initiated and led projects including Coltrane Impressions, Baltic Asteroids, Strange Doors, Baisios Stygos, CinAmono, and Užribis. Interdisciplinary collaboration with theatre artists, actors, and dancers has also been an important part of his creative work. Nivinskas has composed more than 30 original works, ranging from pieces for solo double bass to jazz quintet and double bass with chamber orchestra.
In recent years, Nivinskas has focused primarily on solo double bass performance and his creative work with CinAmono. In 2025, he released his first solo album, Rituals and Transformations, featuring six original compositions for solo double bass. Alongside his work as a performer and composer, Nivinskas teaches at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2022, he became the first Doctor of Arts in jazz in Lithuania, and in 2023 he received the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union Golden Disc Award.
In 2025–2026, Nivinskas was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), where he conducted research into innovative double bass techniques in solo improvisation.
saga - love saga
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saga - love saga
A Wife, a Goddess
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A Wife, a Goddess
Biography
Vytis Nivinskas (b. 1974) is a Lithuanian jazz double bassist, composer, educator, and artistic researcher. His career, spanning more than three decades, encompasses jazz, free improvisation, contemporary music, and interdisciplinary projects. His playing is characterized by a rich and expressive double bass sound, melodic thinking, improvisational freedom, and a sustained interest in the instrument’s sonic and expressive possibilities.
Born and raised in Vilnius, Nivinskas came to music relatively late, beginning to play guitar at the age of fourteen. Fascinated by jazz, he left his studies in philosophy at Vilnius University to pursue professional music studies. He studied at the Vilnius Juozas Tallat-Kelpša Conservatoire and later at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2000, he was an exchange student at the Odense Music Conservatory in Denmark, and from 2001 to 2003 he studied at DePaul University in Chicago, earning a Master’s degree in Jazz Performance.
Nivinskas made his debut on the Lithuanian jazz scene in 1994 and soon began collaborating with leading Lithuanian jazz musicians, including Vladimir Chekasin, Oleg Molokoyedov, Artūras Anusauskas, Arkady Gotesman, Dainius Pulauskas, Jan Maksimowicz, and Liudas Mockūnas. In 2000, at the Vilnius Jazz Festival, he presented his first project as a bandleader, Coltrane Impressions.
A significant part of Nivinskas’s creative development took place in the United States. While studying in Chicago from 2001 to 2003, he co-founded the international group Baltic Asteroids with saxophonist Rimvydas Paulikas, where he also established himself as a composer. In Chicago and later in New York, he collaborated with musicians from the improvisational and avant-garde music scenes, including Nobu Stowe, Bill Brimfield, Trapeze Unit, Dalius Naujo, Kenny Wollesen, and Lawrence “Butch” Morris.
After returning to Lithuania in 2005, Nivinskas continued to perform and compose actively, initiating and developing projects including Strange Doors, Baisios Stygos, CinAmono, and Užribis. He has collaborated with jazz groups such as Saga, Riot, and Giedre & Jazz Miniatures, as well as with musicians Petras Vyšniauskas, Vladimir Tarasov, Andrej Polevikov, Arūnas Šlaustas, Manvydas Pratkelis, Anna Chekasina, Jaak Sooäär, Chris Ruebens, and the Baltic Guitar Quartet. His collaborations have also included the alternative pop group Pieno Lazeriai, singers Jurga and Erica Jennings, and actors Gediminas Storpirštis and Brigita Bublytė. He has worked with contemporary music composers, choirs, string quartets, theatre and film artists, dancers, poets, and creators from other artistic fields. Throughout his career, he has performed extensively in Lithuania, Europe, and the United States.
Nivinskas has composed more than 30 original works, ranging from compositions for solo double bass to jazz quintet and double bass with chamber orchestra. His compositional practice places particular emphasis on improvisation, timbre, and the expansion of the double bass’s expressive possibilities.
Since 2005, Nivinskas has taught at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, where he teaches double bass, jazz ensemble, and improvisation, and supervises master’s theses. He has also given masterclasses in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Serbia, and Turkey. In 2024, he was appointed Associate Professor.
Artistic research has become an important part of Nivinskas’s practice. In 2022, he defended his doctoral artistic research project, Transformations of Jazz Double Bass in the Contexts of Innovation and Experimentation, at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, becoming the first Doctor of Arts in jazz in Lithuania. From 2019 to 2025, he participated in artistic research conferences in Lithuania and abroad and published scholarly articles related to jazz and the double bass.
In 2023, Vytis Nivinskas received the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union Golden Disc Award for intensive concert activity and a high artistic level. From 2007 to 2024, he served on the board of the Lithuanian Jazz Union, contributing to the promotion of Lithuanian jazz both in Lithuania and internationally, and produced and edited the Jazz from Lithuania compilation.
In recent years, a special place in Nivinskas’s creative work has been occupied by CinAmono and solo double bass. Together with vocalist Laura Budreckytė, he has developed CinAmono, a project combining jazz improvisation, original music, and poetry. The group’s debut album, CinAmono, was released in 2018, followed by Music is the Ocean in 2021 and CinAmono Duo in 2024, featuring original music by Nivinskas and Budreckytė alongside texts by seven Lithuanian poets.
Another important direction of his recent work is solo double bass. In 2025, NoBusiness Records released Nivinskas’s first solo album, Rituals and Transformations, featuring six original compositions for solo double bass. Nivinskas composed, performed, and produced the album.
In 2025–2026, Nivinskas was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), where he conducted research into innovative double bass techniques in solo improvisation, methods of sound creation, and performance practice. This research extended his long-standing exploration of the double bass as an independent instrument with continually expanding expressive possibilities.
the astral-terra trapeze unitKurt Hill Iselt - as, fl, Bill Brimfield - tp, Paul Hartsaw - saxes, Stu Greenspan - g, Vytis Nivinskas - db, Alex Duvel - perc, flhn, Bonbonfera Tim Keenan - perc + guests: Hesino Paul Spata - perc, Kosi Keith Eric - voc, Gynna Kray - voc
Astral-Terra Records 29584-CD 01D, 2003 (CD)
saga
Andrė Pabarčiūtė - voc, p, Liudas Mockūnas - reeds, Vytis Nivinskas - db, Marijus Aleksa - dr, perc
Semplice SECD015, 2006 (CD)
In compilations
Note Lithuania: Jazz
"african saga II"
Liudas Mockūnas - reeds, Andrė Pabarčiūtė - voc, Vytis Nivinskas - db, Marijus Aleksa - dr
Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre LMIPCCD+DVD 002, 2007 (CD)