Photo by April Renae

The New Orleans Jazz Museum presents Susanne Ortner. Join us as we celebrate the artists that make New Orleans a world destination for music.  

This program takes place inside our third floor Performance Center, listening room. Admission is free and open to the public, seating is limited and offered first come, first serve.

Enjoy Jazz Music from home with the New Orleans Jazz Museum! Join the Jazz Museum online for our daily Live-Stream Concert Series, in which dynamic musicians perform live from the Jazz Museum! Tune in at 2pm on facebook.com/nolajazzmuseum/live to watch for free.

Susanne Ortner

Great sensitivity and versatility are some of the trademarks of German born clarinetist, saxophonist and composer Susanne Ortner.

 Hailed as “a musician par excellence, capable of moving you deeply” (Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung), she made her way to New Orleans via Pittsburgh, PA, where she helped Holocaust survivors tell their stories - in words and music. 

 Always searching for the mutual in the different, Susanne has delved deeply into a myriad of different styles and genres - from klezmer, to New Orleans jazz, Manouche, and lately Brazilian choro. Her group Choro No Bayou (formerly known as Macumba) celebrated their debut at Jazzfest in 2024.

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 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.

 Since her arrival to the city 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, James Singleton, and many others.

 In her show with Oscar Rossignoli on piano, and Lex Warshawsky on bass, Susanne showcases a variety of her many facets within her originals, as well as within a kaleidoscope of musics that shaped her - from Brazilian choros and New Orleans tunes to vocals in German from the Weimar Republic era - the undertones always being her delicate vulnerability, velvety sound, and raw authenticity.

 Click here to learn more about Susanne Ortner!