Gints Smukais | Concert Production EKSPRESIJAS 1

Gints Smukais presents his third studio album, “EKSPRESIJAS 1”, and will celebrate the release with a concert series in concert halls across Latvia and Lithuania.

The music for this album was composed over a span of 5 years, reflecting on events that unfolded in the world and in his personal life since 2021.

In the concert, Gints will perform not only pieces from the new album, but also beloved melodies by Imants Kalniņš and the band Instrumenti, whose music Gints has cherished since the very beginning of his musical journey.

During the concert, Gints will share experiences from his decade-long path as a musician, composer, and performing artist, and talk about the events that inspired him to write the music for the new album.

Gints Smukais is a Latvian guitarist and composer who has refined his guitar playing by deeply studying and mastering composition and fingerstyle percussion guitar.

Gints has received awards at prestigious international guitar competitions in the USA and Canada, and regularly performs both as a solo artist, playing his own compositions and well-known works from around the world, and in collaboration with musicians and ensembles known in Latvia and Lithuania in both academic and popular music circles.

Among them are ansis, Daddy Was A Milkman, Alise Joste, Jānis Aišpurs, Jānis Stībelis, Elza Rozentāle, MUSIQQ, Annija Putniņa, Latvian Voices, Kristīne Prauliņa, Kaspars Zemītis, Olga Rajecka, Miks Dukurs, the choir “Maska”, and others.

In March 2026, Gints was awarded the GAMMA Prize for the Year’s Highest Contemporary Music Achievement in the category “Instrumental Music Artist of the Year”. This recognition strengthens his position as a representative of instrumental/fingerstyle music in Latvia.

Gints’s original music album “Flourish” was nominated for the Latvian Music Recording of the Year Award “Zelta Mikrofons” in the category “Debut of 2018”. With his solo performance, he became the first fingerstyle guitarist from the Baltic States to appear at “NAMMshow2018” in California, USA, the world’s largest music industry trade show.

In 2021, he represented Latvia at “Tallin Music Week”. The joint project released in 2022, the original music album “Bērziņš Jaunais Smukais”, was nominated for the Latvian Music Recording of the Year Award in the category “Instrumental or Cross-Genre Album of 2022”.

In March 2025, Gints was nominated in the category “Instrumental Music Artist/Group of the Year” at the Latvian music award GAMMA.