We are very happy to announce Liv Andrea Hauge Trio as the winner of the 3rd Zenith Award for emerging artists – an initiative launched by the Europe Jazz Network (EJN) in collaboration with 12 Points Festival, and supported by Creative Europe.
Liv Andrea Hauge Trio is composed of Liv Andrea Hauge (piano), Georgia Wartel Collins (double bass), and August Glännestrand (drums). They have been performing together since 2021, when the band was established by Liv Andrea following her selection for the first round of the Footprints project, funded by Creative Europe, and subsequently toured in Europe in countries including Slovenia, Hungary, Romania and the Netherlands. They have just released their first studio album ‘Ville Blomster’ on the prestigious Norwegian Hubro label. The trio was selected to perform as part of the official jazzahead! 2024 showcase programme on Thursday 11 April at 17h00.
The EJN Zenith Award was created in 2019 to shine a spotlight on a remarkable European ensemble or solo project working in creative jazz and improvised music. The winner is selected from the carefully curated 12 acts performing at the 12 Points festival, all coming from different European countries. The Award celebrates the ensemble’s ability to break musical boundaries while demonstrating an original approach to performance and a potential for a strong, ongoing international career. The name “Zenith Award” was adopted to reflect the level of excellence in the winning act, and its capacity to show a way forward for the future of creative music in Europe. The first recipients of the Zenith Award were Trio Heinz Herbert from Switzerland in 2019 and Nout from France in 2023.
For each award edition, the Europe Jazz Network nominates an international jury of artistic directors, all EJN members, to choose the winner out of the 12 bands performing at the festival. For this third edition of the Zenith Award, due to the cancellation of 12 Points Festival in 2023, the choice of the winning band was made by the Zenith Award jury through online meetings and digital evaluations, from a shortlist of the artists that were chosen to perform at the festival. Please see below the full list of shortlisted candidates.
In indicating their choice for Liv Andrea Hauge Trio, the jury underlined the maturity of the band, despite their very young age, their ability to create beautiful melodies and include them in open and shape-shifting soundscapes, and the outstanding interplay between the three musicians. It is a band that can play on every stage, from big festivals to intimate clubs, and that brings a fresh new reading to the piano trio format in its European configuration.
The jury of the 3rd Zenith Award consisted of: Csenge Hamod (Budapest Music Center, Hungary), Bogdan Benigar (Druga Godba, Slovenia), Igor Vida (Are You FREE? festival, Slovakia), Line Juul (Oslo Jazz festival, Norway) and Kenneth Killeen (Improvised Music Company/12 Points Festival, Ireland).
On being named the winners of the Zenith Award 2024, Liv Andrea Hauge commented: “Feeling super honoured and happy to get the opportunity to travel, play and share our music around Europe. We can’t wait to go on tour and meet all the people involved!”
Liv Andrea Hauge Trio will now receive an outstanding prize of performances and promotional opportunities from among the EJN membership, including a prestigious showcase at the 10th European Jazz Conference in front of over 400 music professionals from all over Europe and beyond in Ghent, Belgium (12-15 September 2024) as part of the showcase programme of the Conference.
EJN will also support additional international tours and concerts inside the EJN membership, setting up a communication and professional development strategy to promote the Zenith Award winners through its members and contacts and assisting in developing the winning act’s visibility and viability in the international arena.
About Liv Andrea Hauge Trio
Originally from Northern Norway, Oslo-based pianist Liv Andrea Hauge leads a trio with two Swedes, bassist Georgia Wartel Collins and drummer August Glännestrand. They were selected for the Footprints Europe programme, and their second album “Ville Blomster” has just been released on Hubro Records. Liv’s compositions focus on groove, simple and singable motifs and exploratory interplay. The music contains playfulness and melancholy in songs that always have a lot of room for improvisation. Hauge has been commissioned to write a major work for trio, three vocalists and full symphony orchestra for the opening of Bodø24 – European capital of culture.
The shortlisted projects for the 3rd EJN Zenith Award for emerging artists:
- Daahoud Salim Quintet; Spain. Spotify link.
- Dishwasher; Belgium. Bandcamp link. Spotify link.
- Inui; France. Soundcloud link. Spotify link.
- Liv Andrea Hauge Trio; Norway. Bandcamp link. Spotify link.
- moondiver; Ireland. Bandcamp link. Spotify link.
- NABOU; Netherlands. Bandcamp link. Spotify link.
- Olga Reznichenko Trio; Germany. Bandcamp link. Spotify link.
- PESH; Poland. Bandcamp link. Spotify link.
- Signe; Finland. Bandcamp link. Spotify link.
- Skylla; UK. Bandcamp link. Spotify link.
- Smag På Dig Selv; Denmark. Spotify link.
- Uassyn; Switzerland. Bandcamp link. Spotify link.
About 12 Points festival
12 Points is a dynamic festival of emerging European jazz established in 2007 by Dublin-based Improvised Music Company (IMC). The festival is nomadic, alternating between Dublin and other vibrant European cities. The 4 day festival presents 12 emerging acts from 12 different European countries. Over 600 young musicians from across Europe have performed at 12 Points since 2007. 12 Points is programmed each year through peer recommendations from a wide pool of jazz promoters and organisations across Europe to seek out the most exciting emerging acts from national and local jazz scenes across the continent. This exploratory approach to finding new talent earned 12 Points the inaugural Europe Jazz Network award for ‘Adventurous Programming’ in 2012. The next edition of 12 Points will take place in Tampere, Finland 25-28 September 2024, in partnership with G LiveLab.
About Europe Jazz Network (EJN)
The Europe Jazz Network (EJN) was created in 1987 as a Europe-wide non-profit association with the mission to encourage, promote and support the development of jazz and creative improvised music within the European scene and to create opportunities for artists, organisers and audiences from all different countries to meet and communicate. Currently EJN includes 196 organisations (festivals, clubs and concert venues and national/regional support organisations) in 36 countries and is supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union through its network strand for the period 2022-2024.
(Press release from Europe Jazz Network. Photo: Amanda_Iversen_Orlich)
