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One passion, two instruments. Līva Strazdiņa, a native Berliner with Latvian roots, plays trumpet and flugelhorn, and she also composes. Now it all comes together: She's releasing her debut album, Unspoken, featuring many original compositions, along with a cover of Billy Joel's Honesty and an arrangement of the popular Latvian folk song Pūt Vējiņi.


Some pieces are direct reflections on specific experiences; for example, Misfortune Happens Sometimes was written after a disastrous concert recording. In general, Līva's music tells stories of experiences, feelings, encounters, and everyday life. When she changed her trumpet embouchure, the exercises required frequent breaks—which she used to write Concerted Breaks. Four Ants originated in a rehearsal. You might think it's about ants; and if you like, the piece sounds like a colony of ants happily making its way through the forest. In fact, it's a play on words with "four ants" and "four and," a musical time signature.

The trumpeter recorded her debut album with fellow musicians who enriched the production with their personal styles and musical expertise: Max Hacker on tenor saxophone and alto flute, Florian Schultz on guitar, Laurie Rich on piano, Christian Cuevas-Müller on double bass, and Bastian Menz on drums.

To this day, Līva draws inspiration and influence from Billy Joel, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Kendrick Lamar, and others. This is evident on her debut album in her cover of Joel's "Honesty," a song that accompanied her throughout her youth and which she has now recorded as an instrumental piece. Due to her family roots in Latvia, Līva is deeply involved with Latvian pop and folk music, which she grew up with and which she encounters again and again in her adopted homeland.

Līva Strazdiņa (born 1997) studied with Sebastian Studnitzky, Malte Burba, Simon Harrer, and Till Brönner at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden. She has played piano since childhood and trumpet and flugelhorn since the age of thirteen. In 2020, she began working on her own compositions.

With Unspoken, Līva shares impressions from her inner world. The album invites listeners to rediscover this emotionality and compare it to their own feelings—to get to know Līva through her music and to discover themselves through Līva's music.

"A true discovery for me in its urgency. Valuable. Go see it!"

— Till Brönner

Text: Liva Strazdina


LĪVA STRAZDINA - UNSPOKEN


  • Līva Strazdiņa - tp, flh, cmop.
  • Max Hacker - tenor saxophone, flute
  • Florian Schultz - guitar
  • Laurie Rich - piano
  • Christian Cuevas-Müller - bass
  • Bastian Menz - drums


Admission: €12-15
Box office opens at 7:30 pm
Cash only
Reservations: mail@jazzamhelmholtzplatz.com
Additional information
Dates
March 2026
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