On August 16th 2014 at 8.30pm, ‘ESPERANZA+’ jazz show will start on the open-air stage of the Polish Baltic Philharmonic in Gdańsk on the Ołowianka island. The show is the main event of the 2014 Solidarity of Arts festival, whose main sponsor is Grupa LOTOS.

This year the event will be hosted by Esperanza Spalding, a young bassist, jazz vocalist and three-time Grammy Award winner. Both Esperanza and her guests are top jazz artists who for decades have been winners or finalists at the most important world-class jazz festivals. From the very beginning, the ‘+’ project featured exclusively big stars, and its previous editions included: ‘Możdżer+’ (2010), ‘Marcus+’ (2011), ‘Stańko+’ (2012) and ‘McFerrin+’ (2013). For four years now it has received excellent reviews, gained mass audience and international recognition outside Poland.

This year the event will start at 7.45pm in the courtyard of the Polish Baltic Philharmonic with Esperanza Spalding leaving her handprint in the Alley of the Stars. Admission to the area will be possible from 7:00pm. The concert will begin at 8.30pm on the open-air stage on the Ołowianka island.

This year's show will include an over twenty-five minutes' long orchestral-vocal piece GAIA, written by Mr. Shorter especially for Esperanza, performed for the first time by the line-up of Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington, Leo Genovese and the Orchestra of the Polish Baltic Philharmonic under Clark Rundell. It will be an occasion to hear an ensemble of such jazz celebrities as Herbie Hancock, Milton Nascimento, Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding and Terri Lyne Carrington, as well as two bands: Pedrito Martinez Group (playing jazz rooted in the Afro-Cuban Rumba tradition) and Oumou Sangaré's band (playing African Wassoulou music).

Other remarkable performers to appear on the Baltic stage will be Wojciech Waglewski and Voo Voo accompanied by the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra (and Esperanza), Warsaw Village Band, as well as the notable musicians from previous editions of the event: Leszek Możdżer, Marcus Miller, Alex Han, Louis Cato (Możdżer's ensemble), and Zohar Fresco. It is the tradition of the ‘+’ project that the host should join each group or soloist of the festival in order to perform together at least one song of their repertoire. It is possible that Esperanza will sing together with Polish bands, and given the outstanding linguistic skills of this remarkable musician, the Baltic audience may be in for a surprise or two.

Admission to the show is free of charge, except for the Golden Circle section (area closest to the stage). Golden Circle tickets are available for sale at PLN 5 via the Polish Baltic Philharmonic box office until August 14th 2014.

We are also happy to invite you to the 'United Through Music' concert, which will be held on August 24th (Sunday) at 7pm at the Polish Baltic Philharmonic hall. Tickets are available for sale via the Polish Baltic Philharmonic box office, or online at bilety24.pl.

The festival will be closed with the screening of a film by Michał Bielawski as part of the official opening of the new headquarters of the European Solidarity Centre (pl. Solidarności 1). It will be held in the auditorium of the newly opened building at 3pm on August 30th (Saturday). Admission free.

Communications Office, Grupa LOTOS S.A., ul. Elbląska 135, 80-718 Gdańsk, Poland, tel. (+48) 58 308 87 31, (+48) 58 308 83 88, e-mail: media@grupalotos.pl