The new emerging generation of European jazz scene!

UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra invites German jazz pianist, composer, arranger and band leader Claudia Döffinger to present her music in Helsinki. Döffinger has a fresh take on big band jazz: she mixes experimental and inventive sounds and combines them with indie, funk and even prog rock – and does all this in a fun and light way.

Döffinger (b. 1989) won the first prize in the 2021 Helsinki International Big Band Composing Contest with her composition Nachtwache. In addition to the winning piece, the G Livelab concert will feature some completely new material from Döffinger composed for UMO and this concert visit, conducted by the composer herself.

Besides winning first prize in the HIBBCC, in the past years she has gained various international jazz composing prizes, released a critically acclaimed album Monochrome and featured with several other leading European big bands as guest conductor and/or composer. She is founder of several ensembles, like Fourscape and ELiNOR with which she has toured actively all over the world. Döffinger wants to move people through her music, either emotionally or physically.

Claudia Doffinger’s writing uses many ingredients like choppy funk, off-center beats, formal romanticism, indie rock earnestness, and prog rock intricacy. She folds all these into the world of big band jazz and comes up with truly remarkable music that takes chances, knits together the seemingly incongruous and is just fun to listen to. She is a musical force with scary potential. All About Jazz

Claudia’s photo by Magdalena Schaller