Jazz for free 

A total of 21 concerts around the Strandpark in Timmendorfer Strandpark can be attended free of charge and spontaneously. 

From warm-up to avslut

The opening events of JazzBaltica on Thursday set the mood for an exhilarating festival weekend. At 6 pm on Thursday, Nils Landgren and the Big Band of the Ostsee-Gymnasium Timmendorfer Strand will perform the traditional WarmUp on Timmendorfer Platz. Late on Sunday evening, the festival reaches its glamorous conclusion with the avslut concert, when the Karl Olandersson Quartet ignites a rousing firework of swing, elegance and virtuosity. The band, made up of Sweden's jazz elite, combines jazz tradition with contemporary sounds to create a harmonious symbiosis.

Concerts @the beach

The Slovakian duo Lash & Grey will be performing on the stage @the beach, which is located directly on the beach, late on Friday evening. Singer Kristin Lash and guitarist Jakob Grey met at the Jaroslav Jezek Conservatory in Prague and released two award-winning albums within a very short space of time. With their own blend of velvety jazz and intimate soul, they have performed not only at Vienna's Porgy & Bess jazz club, but also at New York's Carnegie Hall.

On Saturday evening, the four-piece band Swing 23 will perform here against a picturesque beach backdrop, following in the footsteps of guitar legend Django Reinhardt and violin virtuoso Stéphane Grappelli. From 1920s Paris to New York and Latin America to contemporary guitar jazz, violinist Eva Slongo, bassist Julia Hornung and guitarists Gustav Lundgren and Edouard Pennes invite the audience on a musical journey through swing jazz.

Concerts at the JazzCafé

Saturday lunchtime at the JazzCafé begins with pianist, singer and composer Olivia Trummer. Born in Stuttgart, she studied both classical and jazz piano and was honoured with the Baden-Württemberg Jazz Prize in 2019. In addition to her own compositions, she will present some of her favourite songs by musical greats such as Stevie Wonder, George Gershwin and Burt Bacharach and perform arrangements of Claude Debussy's ‘Children's Corner’ or Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita No. 1 on the border between classical music and jazz.

At 3 pm, Swedish bassist Svante Söderqvist will take to the stage with his project ‘THE ROCKET’. Inspired by Swedish folklore and classical music, the musicians develop chamber music jazz moments full of melodies and melancholy. In addition to pianist Adam Forkelid and drummer Calle Rasmusson, the formation includes Estonian accordionist Tuulikki Bartosik, who organically blends into the acoustic soundscape with subtle electronic effects.

Together with her quintet, Mareike Wiening will perform a melodic programme at 6 p.m.: sometimes in dialogue, sometimes playfully waltzing, sometimes gripping with grooving improvisations. The drummer and composer spent many years in New York and established herself in the jazz scene there. Her music reflects influences from the Big Apple and also has Scandinavian elements. 

On Saturday evening, Norbert Dömling will be performing with his Flying Spices and saxophonist Tony Lakatos. The experienced bassist began his career with the cult Krautrock band Missus Beastly and has been on stage for over 50 years. At JazzBaltica, Norbert Dömling's Flying Spices will bring his compositions to life - full of the joy of variation, interpretation, improvisation and communication.

On Sunday afternoon, the focus will initially be on woodwind instruments: the Swede Lina Lövstrand has found her own voice in jazz with the flute, recorder and bass clarinet and has been involved in theatre productions with some of Sweden's best-known big bands. Together with Per ‘Texas’ Johansson, also a multi-instrumentalist, she explores the diverse sound nuances and combinations of her instruments. 

Always on the lookout for new sounds, trumpeter Matthias Schwengler has developed into one of the most versatile musicians in his field in recent years. He combines jazz with elements from the Balkans, Arab countries and Latin America, giving his playing a global sound colour. At 3 pm, he will be performing with his band Soulcrane and French accordionist Laurent Derache to explore the boundaries of contemporary, chamber music jazz. 

The last concert in the JazzCafé at 6 pm will be given by Armenian trumpeter Angela Avetisyan. After performing at JazzBaltica in 2021 as a member of the Jazzrausch Big Band, she is now returning to the north with her quartet, founded in 2012, and her own compositions. With her almost singing trumpet sound, she breathes life into delicate, subtle melodies and switches to powerful, energetic passages in the next moment. 

Concerts at the JazzClub

Shortly after midnight on Friday and Saturday, the Max Schultz Trio invites you to a musical ‘swing’ at the JazzClub. Max Schultz began playing guitar at the age of ten after seeing a concert with Jimi Hendrix in Stockholm. Today, he is one of the city's most renowned jazz and blues guitarists and has worked with musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Nils Landgren and Esbjörn Svensson. Together with Hammond organist Leo Lindberg and drummer Chris Montgomery, he creates a rousing mix of blues, soul, jazz and rock with plenty of groove.

Concerts on the OpenAir stage

On Friday evening, the Hecktett, a jazz sextet led by trombonist, composer and arranger Jona Heckmann, will open the OpenAir stage. The musicians pursue a clear goal with their music: they leave behind the academic clichés of jazz and create sounds from bebop, soul, funk and blues that are both catchy and substantial. 

On Saturday morning, the Lübeck formation Triologue will be drifting through the spheres of jazz, world music and avant-garde, without firmly locating themselves on the musical map. With its diverse range of instruments - consisting of piano, double bass, drumset and traditional instruments from India, Zimbabwe and Brazil - the trio unfolds its unique and multi-faceted sound. 
On Saturday lunchtime, there will be a ‘blind ticket’ for a winner of this year's state competition Jugend jazzt to present themselves to the JazzBaltica audience on the OpenAir stage. The competition for all young jazz talents in Schleswig-
Holstein is open to jazz orchestras this year and is being held for the 21st time. 

Singer and Lübeck resident Iga Osowska will fill the OpenAir stage on Saturday afternoon with Polish jazz poetry. Tracing her roots, she intensively explores artists from the Polish cultural scene, including the Nobel Prize winner for literature Wisława Szymborska. With a combination of jazz and pop elements and her warm voice, she creates space for a German-Polish cultural exchange. 

Inspired by jazz vocal greats such as Chet Baker, Kurt Elling and Ella Fitzgerald, Lüneburg-born singer Lennart Meyer founded his acoustic band in 2022. The four-piece ensemble mixes the acoustic sounds of piano, bass and drums with digital effects in the vocals and experiments with free improvisational passages. The result is an intense and soulful jazz evening.  

On Sunday afternoon, Hedwig Janko, saxophonist and composer from Hamburg, will present her new project ‘DIALECT’. Together with her quintet, she combines free improvisation with the lyrical melodies of her own compositions. The five musicians each bring their own individual sound language to the music - turning musical soliloquies into dialogues, conversations and sometimes even debates or imaginative narratives that captivate the audience.

The concerts on the OpenAir stage will conclude on Sunday afternoon with the Bennet Agah Quartet by the eponymous saxophonist and Jugend jazzt prizewinner. The programme features original compositions in the sound tradition of modern and contemporary jazz, opening up Scandinavian-inspired soundscapes.