Next week, join us for a series of jazz performances by some of the top Nordic artists in a series hosted with the Nordic Embassies in Washington D.C.! Each day at noon, a free online concert will be live on Facebook, with performances from Sinne Eeg & Shanghai Trio (Denmark) on Monday; Verneri Pohjola (Finland) on Tuesday; Ingi Bjarni Quintet (Iceland) on Wednesday; Kornstad Trio (Norway) on Thursday; and Isabella Lundgren (Sweden) on Friday.

Join us for music with no borders then in this virtual presentation of our annual Summer Jazz program!

All concerts will be live beginning at 12 PM.

SINNE EEG & SHANGHAI TRIO

Sinne Eeg has regularly toured through the U.S., Scandinavia and Asia, and has performed with American jazz icons including Larry Goldings, Peter Erskine and Ken Peplowski, and at storied jazz clubs including Green Mill in Chicago and Birdland in New York. The Danish songstress and songwriter has performed in venues ranging from big orchestras in concert halls as well as smaller ensembles in intimate jazz clubs. She was the winner of the prestigious Danish Carl Prize 2018 for Song of the Year, “Aleppo,” included on her album Dreams. She has received numerous accolades, including four Danish Music Awards, the Danish Radio P2 Jazz Prize, the Ben Webster Prize, the French Prix Du Jazz and Queen Ingrid’s Honorary Grant, personally awarded by Queen Margrethe of Denmark.

VERNERI POHJOLA

Trumpet player and composer Verneri Pohjola is known for his commanding sound, expressive tone and the rich intensity of his improvisations. Pohjola first became known in Finland as a member of the soul band Quintessence. A group led by Pohjola, Ilmiliekki Quartet, has won numerous awards and the first place in the Young Nordic Jazz Comets ensemble competition. Pohjola has received awards including the Yrjö Award, the highest national jazz award in Finland. He has worked with international musicians such as Anthony Braxton, Jeff Ballard, Anders Jormin and Stefan Pasborg, and his solo debut album Aurora was released internationally in 2011 to wide critical press acclaim. Since then, he has released several albums including Ancient History (2012), Bullhorn (2015), Pekka (2017), Animal Image (2018) and The Dead Don’t Dream (2020).

INGI BJARNI QUINTET

Icelandic pianist Ingi Bjarni performs with a quintet consisting of Norwegian trumpeter Jakob Eri Myhre, Estonian guitarist Merje Kägu, Swedish double bassist Daniel Andersson and Norwegian drummer Tore Ljøkelsøy. Their album, Tenging (Icelandic for “connection”) references Ingi Bjarni‘s personal discovery of his inner musicality through the exploration of flow, freedom, confidence and, most pertinently, intuition.

KORNSTAD TRIO

Saxophonist and singer Håkon Kornstad is joined by two of the finest and most versatile improvisers on the European music scene in Kornstad Trio (II), which has performed together since 2016 with a repertoire consisting of classical songs and opera arias infused with improvisation and strong interplay. With its outpouring of ideas and calls and responses in an almost avant garde jazz fashion, each concert is highly different, uniquely taking on journeys of freedom, warmth, and humor with their audience.

ISABELLA LUNDGREN

Isabella Lundgren is one of Sweden’s foremost jazz artists, with four acclaimed albums in Sweden and four in Japan, with critical acclaim as “among the best that has happened to the Swedish jazz scene” (Svenska Dagbladet). Her album Somehow Life Got in the Way received the Orkester Journalens Gyllene Skivan 2015, and the albums ‘Where is Home’ and ‘Out of the Bell Jar’ were both gram-nominated in 2016 and 2020. In 2015 Isabella was received an award for Musician of the Year at the Swedish Radio Jazz Gala, and has also received the Monica Zetterlund Scholarship, Stim Scholarship, Louis Armstrong and Anita O’Day Scholarship, Stockholm City Cultural Scholarship and Gustaf Fröding Scholarship. She is a Chronicleist in Sweden’s Jazz Radio and gave a well-reviewed summer talk in P1 2015. Isabella and her Trio, including three of Sweden’s foremost jazz musicians, have been frequently recorded over the years by the Swedish Radio at Stockholm, Ystads, Sandvikens and Umeås jazz festivals, and have toured internationally in Sweden as well as Japan, Portugal, Norway, Greece, Germany, and the United States.