About Arturas Novikas Jazz School
“Jazz Island” members grew up in Arturas Novikas Jazz School, open since 2004.
About 100 kids and teenagers go to this school. Some of them are only 4 years old. If they want, one day they will also be a cappella masters. This is a very complicated way of performing, which requires a lot of work. But keep learning and nothing is impossible.
Students learn singing in a group, but they also sing solo and play instruments if they want to. What is really obligatory for all of them, it is solfeggio, which is the most important part of becoming a singer. This may sound boring, but it’s not. Teachers of the Jazz School create fun solfeggio exercises in the rhythm of swing, Bossa nova or other.
To make it even more fun, students of the Jazz School participate in different contests or festivals. The elder kids go to summer camp together to sing and compose their own music, and just have fun.
Arturas Novikas Jazz School in the festival in Klaipeda “Young Jazz Wave 2011”
In the Jazz School works a professional team of teachers, educated in Lithuania and abroad. They teach not only singing, but also other important competences in music and in their future life: how to move on stage, responsibility before concerts, punctuality, teamwork.
Free behavior on the stage is a very important part of the school’s effort.
The ability to feel free on stage does not happen by itself; we are working very hard on that. We may have kids with very good voices, but it takes half a year or even more till they relax and we can take them to the stage. We talk every time we meet about how to be expressive. It’s not only a smile. Singers may have a smile on his face, but if we don’t see that in their eyes, if they are afraid of the audience and feel constrained, they won’t move the listener. Artist has to open up and to
make the public feel that it’s being sang for them personally.
Judging from the name of the school you may think it’s only about the jazz, but it’s not. Students sing folk, pop, classic music, composed in Lithuania and all over the world. Most of the music is arranged by Arturas Novikas, whose arrangements are also being used by vocal groups in other schools.
More about Arturas Novikas Jazz School – www.dziazomokykla.lt.