Emma Denward

About

With an intensity that stretches from a close intimacy to the harshness of a scream, Emma Denward sings her lyrics so that you can really feel them!

Magnus Hjorth is a longterm partner in songwriting and in the duo Denward & Hjorth they perform original songs which showcase a nuanced and tight musical communication. Sensitive lyrics and melodies are supported by piano playing which is at times spacious and bare, at others complex with quick brilliance.

Together, Denward & Hjorth find their sound somewhere between modern jazz, the Nordic sound and the Swedish song tradition.

Emma and Magnus started playing and writing together in 2014, which means they celebrate ten years as musical partners the coming year. They have a total of four released three albums. They started out with the album Cirklar with Emma Denward Quintet followed up with two albums for a younger audience with the quartet Emma and the Jazzcrusaders. E and the J are musicians and story tellers set out to create magic and joy for kids and who ever joine them for music listening.

Emma’s passion for jazz and improvisation started with the love for Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, as can be heard in her first album with the group TWANG!. There she full heartedly performed some of her favorite jazz standards. As time has passed she has developed her own way with improvisation and songwriting. Now she sings mostly original music even though her heart still beats for the beauty of the jazz repertoire.

For the last few years Emma has been touring and doing gigs mostly in the south of Sweden, among other venues at Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival.

Coaching and guiding young people in their development towards greater musical, and maybe other, knowledge has always been a big part of Emma’s professional life. She finds that the musical communication, and that of learning, come from the very same creative source.

Emma has been teaching vocal skills and jazz singing in one of Sweden’s mot renown jazz educations, Fridhems folkhögskola, since 2004.

She has a Master of Fine Arts from Malmö Academy of Music.