Ilona Kudina: Baltic Transit

Born and raised in Latvia, Ilona Kudina was trained as a classical musician, earning a master's degree in flute performance from Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music in Riga and becoming a flutist and piccolist with the Latvian National Symphony. Pursuing her interest in improvisation, jazz and contemporary music, she moved to Boston in 2001, where she received a professional diploma from Berklee College.  

Kudina's self-produced debut album, On the Bridge (2006) offered chamber works by celebrated Latvian composers, winning her a certificate of achievement from the World Federation of Free Latvians. She followed that up with Nothing But Illusion in 2011, also self-produced, which featured her compositions and arrangements of Latvian folk songs in an ensemble with two of her esteemed professors at Berklee, trumpeter Greg Hopkins and the great drummer Billy Hart.  The American Latvian Association recognized her with a Lifetime Achievement Award for promoting Latvian culture in the US in 2016.

Baltic Dreams features two of Kudina's pieces ("Karma" and "Dedication") and two arrangements of Latvian folk songs by members of her group: "Aiz azara augsti kolni," arranged by drummer Artis Orubs, and "Tuoli dzeivoj muna meiluo," arranged by pianist Viktors Ritovs. Oscar Stagnaro, who plays bass on the date, contributed two arrangements: Peruvian singer-songwriter Chabuca Granda's "La Flor de la Canela" and Rodgers and Hammerstein's "My Favorite Things." Bill OConnell's "Oasis" rounds out the program.

The strongest cuts on the album are the two Latvian pieces, both nationally well-known songs of eastern Latgalian ethnolinguistic provenance, which feature the voice of Arta Jekabsone, frequently overdubbed to create a choral effect. Numerous recorded and videotaped versions of the tunes are available online in 2026, as sung by school and community choirs and bands, performed at folk festivals, arranged for classical ensembles, or played informally with audience members singing along.

"Aiz azara augsti kolni," which translates as "high mountains behind the lake" or "tall hills beyond the lake," has a lyric that speaks of a beautiful girl, a young man, and the red berries, figs and wine of home. Orubs' multipartite arrangement centers on Jëkabsone's multilayered voice and Kudina's counterpoint, with energetic solos from Ritovs and Kudina. The effect is wonderfully joyful and vibrant.

The lyrical lens of "Tuoli dzeivoj muna meiluo" ("far away lives my beloved" or "my beloved girl lives far away") reflects the perspective of a man who, for unspoken reasons, is separated from his lover. As they part, he swears that he will never love another ("Wherever I will ride, everywhere I will take you with me"). The young woman bursts into tears. In a fascinating twist, Ritovs eschews the widely-known Latgalian lyric completely in his arrangement. Instead, he has Jëkabsone singing entirely wordlessly, like a horn, and taking a scat solo. The rhythmic feel, with its cool-but-pronounced backbeat, is in a contemporary jazz-pop idiom. And it appears that the improvisatory nature of the arrangement—with its ambiguously nonsemantic 'text'—somehow lends voice to the girl left behind in the story. Kudina's flute doubles and responds to the vocal lines, deepening their expressive beauty and adding to the melodic narrative. More of this, please.

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