Sol E Mar at Studio Saint Philip – New Orleans, LA

New Orleans based German clarinetist, saxophonist and composer Susanne Ortner is equally conversant in jazz, classical music, and various ethnic musics.

The German Newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine states that she is “a musician par excellence, capable of moving you deeply.” Susanne is a graduate of the University of Augsburg.

Susanne was the founder of the German Quartet “Sing Your Soul,” and collaborates and tours internationally with jazz musicians, mostly in the intimate duo- and trio-format, such as her own trio with James Singleton on bass, and Nahum Zdybel on guitar, and with the Ortner/Limberger Duo with Belgian Gypsy Jazz icon Tcha Limberger on guitar, violin, and voice.

In addition she has performed in concert with numerous outstanding musicians such as pianist Tom Roberts, accordionist/pianist Alan Bern, First Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonics Noah Bendix-Balgley, multi-instrumentalist Vince Giordano, drummer Roger Humphries, accordionist Vladimir Mollov, accordionist and composer Guy Klusevec, cellist and composer Catherine Bent, and others. Susanne moved to the US in 2006, first to Pittsburgh/Pennsylvania.

“Susanne is a beautiful musician who plays with conviction, great passion, lovely intonation, a good ear, always deeply attuned to everything going on around her (something I REALLY appreciate), and a deep-in-the-pocket groove.”

— Guy Klucevsek, Accordionist & Composer

Since her move to New Orleans in 2017, Susanne has established herself within the jazz community, and has performed – mostly in duos and trios –with New Orleans greats such as Tom McDermott – piano, Don Vappie – banjo/guitar, James Singleton – bass, Nahum Zdybel – guitar, Kris Tokarski –piano, Helen Gillet – cello, and many others.

Her most recent musical infatuation is with Brazilian choro, the grandfather of Bossa Nova, an exuberant and highly virtuosic genre of Early Brazilian music.

Susanne has arranged and composed music for many theatrical productions including “Mazel” by Amy Hartman,“Our Class” by Tadeusz Slobozianek, and “Die Weihnachtsgeschichte” by The Augsburger Puppenkiste . She appears on several CDs and has recorded the following CDs as leader or co-leader: “Last Stop Sehnsucht” (Susanne Ortner Trio, 2020), “Die Musik aus der Weihnachtsgeschichte” (Susanne Ortner quartet), “A Trip To America” and “Hot World Chamber Music” (Ortner-Roberts Duo), and “Khosn Kale Mazl-Tov” (Sing Your Soul). She has done book and film projects.

Susanne is the subject of the book “Living the Dream” – Für die Musik nach Amerika” (Wissner Verlag Augsburg, 2011), written by German Television journalist Helge Fuhst.

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Pianist, composer, and educator Marina Albero is a captivating performer born in Barcelona and based in Seattle since 2015 and now living in New Orleans. Albero’s playing is an absolute celebration of life, her spirited performances are intelligent, uplifting, and delightfully engrossing. 

Albero deftly draws on a lifetime of music tradition both on piano and psalterium, from her native Barcelona in classical and early music as well as flamenco, to Cuba and Son Cubano, to American jazz. She has been the recipient of several awards, including twice the “Golden Ear” awards “Instrumentalist of the Year”, “Album of the year” and “Concert of the year” and was featured as Resident artist for the 2021 Earshot Jazz Festival. Her upcoming album “A nomad of sound” was recorded in New Orleans last April and it features outstanding artists such as Amina Scott, Pedro Segunda or Yusa.

She was a piano professor at Cornish College of the Arts and has performed with outstanding musicians and bands such as Chano Dominguez, L’Arpeggiata, Ganesh Rajagopalan, Jeff Johnson, Thomas Marriot, Alba Carmona, Celisse among others.