Gediminas Gelgotas and NICO ensemble

NICO Ensemble constantly takes the stage of leading classical and contemporary music venues and festivals across Europe, Asia, and the United States, reaching new and young audiences of classical music with their highly attractive, captivating, and original performances. NICO concerts are based on the unique blend of classical and pop-rock music culture, reinventing the visual component of music performance, and updating it into something entirely new. For those who may think ‘new music’ means something austere and inaccessible, the experience of NICO Ensemble performing live will prove otherwise.

In recent years the ensemble has reached new milestones with debuts at prestigious concert halls, including Zurich’s Tonhalle (2024), the Grand Théâtre de Provence (2024), and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (2023). Additionally, their latest album, Consonance, released under the Warner Classics label in 2024, marks another significant chapter in the ensemble’s already impressive journey.

In 2026, the NICO Ensemble celebrates its 20th concert season. The anniversary will be marked by special programmes presented in prestigious concert halls across Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Poland, Switzerland, and throughout Europe, highlighting two decades of Ensemble’s artistic creativity and international recognition.

NICO Ensemble (NICO – the New Ideas Chamber Orchestra) was founded by one of the most recognised young Baltic composers Gediminas Gelgotas back in 2006 and his music makes up the majority of the repertoire performed by the ensemble. Gelgotas’ mesmerising musical language, based on multiple contemporary influences, a nowadays rare, almost cinematographic mastery of melody and a stunning rhythmic drive, as well as his vision of integrating minimalistic choreographic details into performances while the musicians play music by heart, using non-traditional string instrument techniques and voices is what creates the exciting concert experiences that are reinventing the borders between the experimental, the minimal, the contemporary and more popular, mainstream music forms.

The ensemble continues making their appearances at prestigious concert venues and festivals, including performances in such concert halls as Leipzig Gewandhaus, St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, and at Usedomer, Elverum, and Vilnius music festivals, collaborating with renowned musicians such as Ole Edvard Antonsen, Francesco Tristano, David Geringas, Kristjan Järvi, Mari Samuelsen, Avi Avital, Ksenija Sidorova, Roman Patkolò, and Janusz Wawrowski, among others. Members of the ensemble perform in both the Symphony and Chamber Orchestras of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society in Vilnius, maintain active solo careers, and teach at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.

The ensemble’s founder and artistic director, composer Gediminas Gelgotas is a sought-after collaborator who works closely with world-renowned soloists, bringing his signature energy and insight to every partnership. As a conductor, he also regularly leads the Philharmonic Society orchestras in Vilnius and serves as an associate professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA).

PRINCIPAL MEMBERS
AUGUSTA ZUOKĖ (violin, concertmaster)
JULIJA ANDERSSON (violin, viola)
DALIA SIMASHKA (violin, viola)
AGATA URSUL (violin)
IVETA JANULYTĖ (violin, NICO Scholar)
LIUDVIKAS SILICKAS (cello)
POVILAS PAUKŠTĖ (cello)
AUGUSTINAS SOKALSKI (cello, NICO Scholar)

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
GEDIMINAS GELGOTAS (composer, piano, voice)

Official site
www.nicomusic.eu