Concerts with free admission!

A total of 21 concerts and events at JazzBaltica (27 to 30 June 2024) can be attended this year with free admission and also spontaneously. It all kicks off on Thursday, 27 June at 6 pm with the traditional warm-up on Timmendorfer Platz: Nils Landgren will be on stage with the big band from Ostsee-Gymnasium Timmendorfer Strand, getting the town centre in the mood for the festival with plenty of energy. 

Concerts @the beach

Late on Friday evening, Swedish singer and pianist Ida Sand takes to the stage right on the beach. With her earthy, distinctive voice, she is at home in soul and blues without missing out on the improvisational freedom of jazz. Together with her long-time musical companion Nils Landgren and double bassist Caris Hermes, who will be honoured with the WDR Jazz Prize in 2024, she invites you to swing musically at @the beach.

Swedish and Greek musical traditions merge with jazz and classical music on Saturday evening when pianist Joel Lyssarides and bouzouki master Georgios Prokopiou present their soulful programme on the beach. With a sensitive feel for timbres, harmonies and rhythms, they place the bouzouki - an eight-stringed lute from the Greek musical tradition - at the centre of their concert and present this special instrument in a modern light.

Concerts at the JazzCafé

The Estonian composer and pianist Rahel Talts and her quartet will open Saturday lunchtime at the JazzCafé. The Copenhagen-based ensemble met during their studies and combines elements of blues, jazz, folk and pop to create a cheerful, groovy mix with surprising twists and turns. After releasing their first album "Greener Grass" in May 2023, the quartet has been travelling all over Europe. In 2024, JazzBaltica is now on the tour schedule for the first time alongside Southeast Asia.

The band Fjarill, consisting of the Swedish singer and pianist Aino Löwenmark and the South African violinist Hanmari Spiegel, will follow at 3 pm. The two musicians have been working together in their adopted home of Hamburg for 20 years and complement each other musically without words. In the JazzCafé, they tell stories of childhood memories and realisations in old age, of joie de vivre and longing for peace, of diversity and togetherness, of home and new beginnings with their own songs, but also with poetry settings by Pär Lagerkvist, Nelly Sachs and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. They will be musically complemented by Omar Rodriguez Calvo and Jürgen Spiegel, both members of the Tingvall Trio.

The Armenian Tigran Tatevosyan has explored the diverse world of jazz and the folk music of his homeland in depth and developed a personal style from this. Trained as a classical pianist, his interest was aroused not only by the music of Claude Debussy and Sergei Rachmaninov but also by jazz pianists such as Oscar Peterson and Herbie Hancock. As a logical consequence, he went on to study jazz piano. With his trio, he will be presenting his melodic and rhythmic compositions between Armenian folk tradition and jazz at 6 pm in the JazzCafé.

On Saturday evening, drummer and composer Eric Schaefer and his band The Shredz, founded in 2013, will be performing at the JazzCafé. Eric Schaefer has already worked with pianists such as Michael Wollny and Joachim Kühn and is known for his experimental and innovative musical ideas. He playfully transcends genre boundaries when he creates an electronic and acoustic blend of krautrock, jazz and ambient with The Shredz. A unique sound in which repetition and groove dissolve any sense of time into thin air. 

On Sunday at 12 noon, singer Selma Pinton will be on stage at the JazzCafé. The daughter of Alberto Pinton, saxophonist with the famous Bohuslän Big Band, has developed into one of the most exciting young voices in Swedish jazz in recent years and has released two albums to date. With her soulful voice, the 27-year-old combines traditional and modern jazz elements with pop. At JazzBaltica, Selma Pinton will be sensitively accompanied on the piano by Max Agnas.

Pianist Adam Forkelid has been active on the Swedish jazz scene for 20 years and has already toured with jazz musicians such as drummer Magnus Öström, bassist Dan Berglund, trumpeter Peter Asplund and singer Viktoria Tolstoy. He has been fascinated by jazz and improvisation since he was taught the piano by his father at the age of five. Together with guitarist Carl Mörner Ringström, bassist Niklas Fernqvist and drummer Daniel Fredriksson, he will present poetic melodies from his album "1st Movement" at 3 pm. 

The last concert in the JazzCafé at 6 pm will be given by the Analogue Swing ensemble. Founded in 2020 after studying together at the Lübeck University of Music, the five musicians bring danceable swing music to the most diverse places in Germany with an irrepressible joy of playing and improvisation. In the unusual constellation of clarinet, violin, two guitars and double bass, they make jazz classics resound in new sound colours and draw on their different musical roots in pop, world music, jazz and classical music for their own compositions.

Concerts at the JazzClub

On Friday evening shortly after midnight, Marriage Material will be rocking, witty and highly energetic when they perform at the JazzClub. Guitarist Arto Mäkelä, vibraphonist Raphael Meinhart, bassist Thomas Stieger and drummer Felix Lehrmann throw all their experiences from jazz, progressive rock, neoclassical and funk into a pot and the result is music like a kaleidoscope - or as Marriage Material themselves describe it: "cinematic jazz". 

The Matti Klein Soul Trio will be performing at the JazzClub on Saturday night. The trio's sound is characterised by Matti Klein's playing on the Wurlitzer electric piano and the Rhodes bass - two electromagnetic keyboard instruments that were mainly used in jazz, funk and soul in the 1970s and are reminiscent of the bell-like sound of a vibraphone. Together with his colleagues Lars Zander on bass clarinet and tenor saxophone and André Seidel on drums, he creates a rousing reminiscence of the glorious era of soul jazz with plenty of groove.

Concerts on the OpenAir stage

The seven musicians of FROLLEIN SMILLA, who open the OpenAir stage on Friday evening, prioritise stylistic diversity. From pop ballads to funky brass interludes, the Berlin band offers a wide range of sounds to get you moving and dancing. In 2024, the band will release their fourth album "Keep Smiling" with their usual cheeky and politically poetic lyrics. 

On Saturday morning, the MHL big band will perform on the OpenAir stage under the direction of Bernd Ruf. Founded 20 years ago, the big band made up of students from Lübeck University of Music has developed into one of the best ensembles on the north German jazz scene. The debut album "Timeless Changes - LübeckSounds" was enthusiastically received by both the specialised press and the public in 2014. In 2024, the MHL big band will be a guest at JazzBaltica for the first time.

The trio frech | bollini | heidepriem will fill the open-air stage with Nordic-inspired sounds on Saturday afternoon. All of the chamber music formation's compositions were written by Klaus Frech from Flemhude, who originally worked as a harpsichordist in the early music scene. On piano, double bass and percussion, they create a gentle yet complex fabric of sound that radiates a sense of security and calm. 

The New Orange Swing Orchestra (NOSO) is travelling from Tokyo, some 12,000 km away, for its concert on the open-air stage on Saturday afternoon. The big band from HOSEI University in the Japanese capital has been in existence since 1960 and is one of the country's leading university big bands. The NOSO has already shared the stage with Nils Landgren and Ingolf Burkhardt and can also look back on a long collaboration with the OGT Bigband.

Lucas Kemmler's trio Panimo will conclude the concerts on the OpenAir stage on Saturday. Born in Itzehoe, Lucas Kemmler is inspired by guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, but also Joe Pass and Bill Frisell. Together with bassist Timon Krämer and drummer Henning Katz, the guitarist brings catchy melodies paired with rhythmic playfulness to life. 

On Sunday lunchtime, there will be a "blind ticket" for a prizewinner of this year's Jugend jazzt state competition to present themselves to the JazzBaltica audience on the OpenAir stage. The competition for all young jazz talents in Schleswig-Holstein is taking place for the 20th time.

The Ben Prechtl Quartet, consisting of students from the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre, will conclude the concerts on the OpenAir stage on Sunday afternoon. In addition to pieces by quartets such as those of saxophonists Bob Reynolds, Joshua Redman and Chris Potter, the programme also includes original compositions.

The children's music workshop

takes place on Sunday from 12 noon on the OpenAir stage. Children from the age of four can approach music with a spirit of adventure, creativity and fun.