Trio Neda / Labutis / Banys
Neda Malūnavičiūtė – vocal, flute
Vytautas Labutis – saxes,bass clarinet
Richardas Banys – piano
This trio has been performing together for nine years. In mid-2017, long-time stage partners Vytautas Labutis and Neda Malūnavičiūtė teamed up with the young, creative pianist Richardas Banys.
It is no surprise—the Labutis-Malūnavičiūtė tandem, active since the 1990s, has always been drawn to musical experimentation. Over their long years of partnership, Vytautas and Neda have developed a unique, almost telepathic style of communication and shared ensemble intuition, allowing them to bring any musical vision to life. Their vocabulary of improvisation is inexhaustible.
The trio performs a repertoire consisting of original compositions as well as pieces by other authors. In this lineup, they have already performed at various jazz festivals, including Birštonas and "Vilnius Mama Jazz" in Lithuania, "Yednist" in Kyiv, and the Chișinău Jazz Festival, as well as in numerous concert halls and venues across Lithuania.
Media & Official Links:
Youtube playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLPIztenM9ilUU5ut9eNm146r9z5wDiMb
Birštonas Jazz Festival:
https://www.lrt.lt/mediateka/irasas/1013694354/dziazo-vakaras-trio-neda-labutis-banys
Personal pages:
https://www.facebook.com/neda.malunaviciute www.labutis.lt/ https://www.facebook.com/labutismusic https://www.facebook.com/vytautas.labutis https://www.facebook.com/richardas.banys
About the Musicians
The primadonna of Lithuanian jazz, flutist and vocalist Neda Malūnavičiūtė, made her debut in 1988 at the Birštonas Jazz Festival, performing with the Balys Dvarionas Music School youth ensemble led by Vladimir Chekasin.
Later, Neda graced the Birštonas stage with the Artūras Anusauskas Quintet (which won the festival's Grand Prix), the ensemble "Džiazo nublokšti" (Gone with the Jazz), the Vilnius Jazz Quartet, the Dainius Pulauskas Jazz Sextet, and the Vilnius Jazz Orchestra, among other prominent groups. In 2012, her extensive contributions to Lithuanian jazz were officially recognized when she was awarded the prestigious Birštonas Jazz Festival Grand Prix for lifetime achievement.
The singer has improvised alongside nearly every master of the Lithuanian jazz scene. She has participated in projects with the Vytautas Labutis Octet, Leonid Shinkarenko’s quintet "Jazz 5", and the Kaunas Big Band. She was also a member of the improvisational music group "Exlex" (together with the late percussionist Tomas Dobrovolskis) and developed a collaborative trio program with Artūras Anusauskas and Vytautas Labutis. Beyond jazz, Neda has spent many years performing with acclaimed actors Kostas Smoriginas and Olegas Ditkovskis, and since 2022, she has been actively touring with pianist Richardas Banys, performing a dedicated program of Lithuanian songs.
On the international stage, she has collaborated with prominent foreign artists, including Estonian saxophonist Raivo Tafenau and German pianist Bernd Homann, and has toured the USA with the band of Lithuanian-American musician Kęstutis Stančiauskas.
"There is no single 'correct' genre—either you have something to say through music, or you don't. The greater the variety, the more interesting life is. I am glad that there is no routine in my daily life—new winds are always blowing, and I choose for myself who I want to play with, what, and where," the singer shares.
Virtually every jazz festival in Lithuania has featured Neda. With various ensembles, she has performed in Finland, Germany, Sweden, Spain, the USA, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, and Poland. Her accolades include the Grand Prix at the International Vocalist Competition in Białystok, Poland (1994), the Lithuanian "Bravo" award for her album Laikas prisiminti (A Time to Remember, 1997), and the Grand Prix at the International "Yesterday" Competition in Pärnu, Estonia (1999) with the Dainius Pulauskas Sextet for their outstanding interpretation of a John Lennon and Paul McCartney song.
Vytautas Labutis (b. 1960) began his musical journey playing the accordion at the Vilnius Balys Dvarionas Music School. He later studied saxophone and jazz improvisation under the mentorship of Vladimir Chekasin. Labutis made his professional debut in 1982 at the Birštonas Jazz Festival as a member of the Petras Vyšniauskas Quartet. Since then, he has performed extensively across Europe, as well as in the USA (including the Ford Montreux Jazz Festival in Detroit), Australia, and Asia (featuring at major jazz festivals in China and India). He is a remarkably versatile musician: a distinct improviser, performer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and ensemble leader.
Throughout his career, Labutis has been at the center of key Lithuanian jazz formations. He was a member of the Petras Vyšniauskas Quartet (1982–1988), the Vladimir Chekasin Quartet (from 1987), the leader of the Vytautas Labutis Trio (from 1988), and a member of both the quintet "Džiazo nublokšti" (Gone with the Jazz, from 1995) and the acclaimed "Vilnius Jazz Quartet," which spanned 15 years from its inception in 1995. In 1997, he assembled an octet to record his first album of original compositions, Terra Vandetuja. His individual achievements include winning the Grand Prix at the Birštonas Jazz Festival '96 and the "Bliuzo Maratonas" (Blues Marathon) in Kaunas in 2002.
The saxophonist has shared the stage with nearly every prominent figure and ensemble in Lithuanian jazz, including Vladimir Tarasov's Lithuanian Art Orchestra, the Lithuanian Young Composers Orchestra, the Dainius Pulauskas Sextet, and the Kaunas Big Band. For ten consecutive years, Labutis was a regular member of the prestigious international Jazz Baltica Ensemble (led by legends such as David Murray, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Maria Schneider, and Django Bates). His extensive international portfolio also includes collaborations like Octet Ost III, the East-West Vapirov Project, the New European Saxophone Quartet, and the Italian-Lithuanian Quartet (featuring A. Pellegrini, R. Iena, V. Labutis, and E. Kanevičius, 2009). Furthermore, he joined forces with the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra for the special projects Conversations Circle and Night in Tunisia, and for several years led the youth jazz ensemble Silent Blast, composed of his own students.
Beyond jazz, Labutis frequently performs contemporary classical music, participates in avant-garde performances, and collaborates on recording sessions for theater and cinema. He has also made on-screen appearances in films, notably Taxi Blues (dir. Pavel Lungin), Rojuje irgi sninga (Snow in Paradise), and Pelėdų kalnas (Owl Mountain, dir. Audrius Juzėnas).
Deeply committed to education, Labutis has been a faculty member at the Vilnius Balys Dvarionas Music School since 1995 and previously taught at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (2000–2002). His students routinely continue their advanced studies at leading jazz institutions across Europe and the United States.
Currently, Labutis actively leads his own music projects and is an integral member of various ensembles, including the All Reeds Duo, the Neda / Labutis / Banys Trio, Haruspic, the Emeritus Jazz Quartet, and Shinkarenko Jazz5. He collaborates with a wide array of Lithuanian masters—such as V. Chekasin, V. Tarasov, Arkadijus Gotesmanas, Rokas Zubovas, Artūras Anusauskas, and Donatas Bielkauskas—and composes as well as performs live music for poetry and music theater productions alongside actors Dalia Jankauskaitė, Pijus Ganusauskas, and poet Gytis Norvilas.
In 2025, at the Vilnius Jazz Festival, Vytautas Labutis was honored with a prestigious award for his outstanding lifetime contributions to Lithuanian jazz culture. His extensive discography includes 3 solo albums of original music, alongside contributions to over 50 albums as a co-author, featured performer, or music producer.
Pianist Richardas Banys began his musical path in Šiauliai through independent studies of classical piano and composition, which he later pursued formally at the Šiauliai Saulius Sondeckis Conservatory. After enrolling in the Popular Music Department at Vilniaus Kolegija (University of Applied Sciences), the pianist fully immersed himself in his passion for jazz, subsequently earning his Master’s degree from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2016.
That same year, Banys gave a prominent solo recital on the main stage of the international jazz festival "Vilnius Mama Jazz." Over the years, he has repeatedly graced the country's most prestigious stages, featuring at "Vilnius Mama Jazz" (2016, 2019, 2022), "Vilnius Jazz" (2014), and the Birštonas Jazz Festival (2014, 2016, 2018). Notably, he also performed in Vladimir Chekasin’s jubilee concert at "Vilnius Mama Jazz" in 2022.
The musician has shared the stage with many of Lithuania’s leading jazz creators, including V. Chekasin, Anna Chekasina, Neda Malūnavičiūtė, and Vytautas Labutis (as part of the Neda / Labutis / Banys Trio). From 2016 to 2025, he was an active member of Remigijus Rančys’ project "The Schwings Band." He has also collaborated with renowned composers Andrius Kulikauskas and Olegas Ditkovskis. Since 2022, he and Neda Malūnavičiūtė have been actively touring with a dedicated program of Lithuanian songs.
Banys performs extensively both in Lithuania and internationally, with appearances across Germany, Austria, Czechia, Poland, Estonia, Switzerland, Finland, and the UK. Alongside his performance career, he is deeply involved in academia; he has conducted lectures and seminars as an Associate Professor at Vilniaus Kolegija and completed professional teaching fellowships in Denmark. Currently, he teaches piano, solfège, and jazz harmony in the Department of Performing Arts at Vilniaus Kolegija.