Gediminas Stankevičius

Bio

Gediminas Stankevičius was introduced to music at the age of 7 - he studied singing, piano, solfeggio and other disciplines in the Vilnius choir Sakalėlis, but after spending 5 years in Sakalėlis, he decided that singing, although it gave him a musicality and a variety of impressions, was not to his heart.  After taking some time away from music-making, he continued to take an active interest in various styles of music, both electronic and instrumental, and began to feel a strong attraction to rhythm: at school, teachers used to get angry with him for constantly drumming with pencils on his desk. Thus, in the autumn of 2004, when he sat down at the drum kit for the first time, his career as a drummer began.

The musician learnt to play percussion mainly on his own, and consulted well-known Lithuanian drummers Arkadijus Gotesmanas, Linas Labudis, Marijus Aleksa, and when the opportunity to study remotely arose, he attended a number of seminars with world-famous American drummers Cliff Almond, Tommy Igoe, Antonio Sanchez.

In the autumn of 2009, L. Karaliunas  invited him to join the RMSC. After joining the group, the musician became more familiar with jazz and Latin American styles.

"The master has made more mistakes than a beginner would even dare to try. A good teacher and guide can be his own teacher and guide after he has acquired some basic fundamentals. The most important thing is to have enough intrinsic motivation and determination and to be able to enjoy the music, not to be afraid to make mistakes, because all mistakes and experiences lead to the goal. It is important not to compete with anyone, not to compare, not to take it to heart if someone ridicules you, because music is not a sport, so there is nothing to compete for" - this is the musician's approach.

The drummer has had the opportunity to play a wide variety of musical styles throughout his career: blues, rockabilly, pop, funk, hip-hop, jazz, Afro-Cuban jazz, salsa, musica popular brasileira, afrobeat, folk, drum'n'bass and many others. However, he is most interested in Latin American rhythms, 1920s-1930s and New Orleans jazz, hip-hop and r&b, funk.

In Lithuania, he has performed at most of the renowned festivals - Birštonas Jazz, Druskininkai Jazz Marathon, Vilnius Mama Jazz, Sostinės Dienos, Elektrėnai Jazz, Kėdainiai Broma Jazz, Kaunas Jazz, Roko Naktys, Granatos LIVE, Galapagai, Karkle, Vilnius LIVE, Jurassic Celebration, Purpurinis vakaras, etc. He has performed with various projects in Poland, Italy, Germany, Holland, Ukraine, Russia, Switzerland, Finland, Kazakhstan, China, Spain, Greece. The musician has had the opportunity to perform together with a whole range of famous Lithuanian jazz musicians such as L.Janušaitis, V.Ramoška, P.Zdanavičius, D.Aleksa, M.Vadoklis, V.Čekasinas, E.Kanevičius, R.Rančys, J.Jasinskis, R.Banys, G.Nakas, D.Murashov, A.Polevikov, L.Budreckyte, V.Nivinskas, etc. The drummer has also played with a number of well-known singers in Lithuania, such as J.Šeduikytė, A.Zalieska ("Arbata"), E.Sipavičius, G.Vaitkutė, V.Genytė, V.Matačiūnaitė, G.Storpirštis, L.Peleniūtė ("Marga Muzika"), A. Bagdonavičius, R.Švipaitė ("The Ditties"), "Migloko", M.M.Paulauskaitė, K.Radžiukynaitė, S.Šemiotas ("Meandi"), J.Brūzga, and the foreign performers A.Palmisani (Italy), A.Trindade (Brazil), C.Rey (Chile), Ze Kouyate (Brazil). In 2016, at the closing ceremony of the Kaliningrad Jazz Festival, she played with Grammy winner Mandy Gaines (USA, New Orleans). In 2020, he made his debut as a composer and released the first Lithuanian Afrobeat album Ojiboland with the collective Ojibo Afrobeat.

G. Stankevičius said, "The RMSC Club means a lot to me. Being a member of this community has obviously improved me as a musician and strengthened me as a person."

In the last few years, G. Stankevičius has been actively participating in various jazz, indie, pop and electronic music projects, collaborating with both Lithuanian and foreign artists and musicians (8 Kambarys, Jurga Šeduikytė, Swing Cats, The Schwings Band, Meandi, Marga Muzika, Giedrius Arbačiauskas, Home Jazz Band, etc. ) performs both in Lithuania and abroad, composes and performs original music with the collective Ojibo Afrobeat.