EDITH LETTNER & AFRICAN JAZZ SPIRIT
EDITH LETTNER (musician, composer, painter)
“In music, painting and in my daily life improvisation and spontaneity are very important to me. I have got to be on the move, constantly. Over the last couple of years I have reached what I consider to be perfection: I no longer reside, I commute with my travel bag and my instruments….between my studio in the country, Vienna, New York, Senegal….Motion, dance, dynamic form a bridge that interconnects my work as a musicianandas a painter. As someone who paints with sounds I live my emotions through music. With colours, I bring them to resonate in my paintings.”
Edith Lettner was born in Linz, Austria, in 1964. In 1983 she made Vienna the centre of her work as a freelance musician and painter. She showed her work in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad and staged painting performances together with jazz musicians. As a saxophonist, she studied with Leo Wright, Manfred Balasch, Herwig Gradischnig and most recently Oscar Noriega in New York. She took classes in jazz theory with Uli Scherer.
Edith Lettner’s interests lie primarily in jazz, free improvisation, African and oriental music. She also plays the Duduk, an Armenian woodwind instrument. She very intuitively brings her unique and distinctive style to the cooperation with numerous bands, both during live performances and CD recordings. In 2005 she founded her own ensemble freemotion (jazz & more) and in 2010 the African Jazz Spirit project in Senegal. To both projects she can contribute her own compositions in very special ways. Edith Lettner has also composed theatre and film music. Her frequent cooperation with musicians from other cultures and artists from other art genres has made her an incredibly versatile artistic personality with a penchant for activism. Her numerous stays abroad (Senegal, New York, Armenia….) are absolutely essential to Edith Lettner. Her works in music and painting cross-fertilise each other.