Between Light

“This piece is a note to myself: that there are dreams that don’t come true the way you’d have wanted them to, but that other doors may open as a result.” Shuteen Erdenebaatar at the JazzBaltica Festival

As a child in Mongolia, she wanted to be a pop singer, then a saxophonist. Ultimately, she realized her musical dream on the piano. Jazz struck the young classical pianist like a bolt of lightning. It was love at first sight. Shuteen Erdenebaatar left Ulaanbaatar to study jazz piano and composition in Munich, quickly learned German, founded a quartet, a duo, and a jazz chamber orchestra, composed two albums—with another one up her sleeve—and has since been winning one award after another, including the 2024 German Jazz Prize and Mongolia’s highest cultural award. And here she is now. With the SKO, she will premiere the piano and string orchestra version of the album “Between Light.” Together with Nils Kugelmann—double bassist, contralto clarinetist, composer, and partner “in life and in sound”—she performs selections from their jointly composed album “Under the Same Stars.” Rarely has jazz sounded so crystal-clear, so organically flowing, so poetic, and so liberating. Like an intense dream. “Human intelligence, paired with intuition and empathy. A brilliant mix!” (Jazz-Thing)

Featuring:
Shuteen Erdenebaatar . Jazz piano
Nils Kugelmann . Double bass, contra-alto clarinet
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra

Program:
“Between Light” (world premiere)
and pieces from the album “Under the Same Stars”
(rearranged for piano, contra-alto clarinet, and string orchestra)

Artist talk at 7:00 p.m.