Enji
Biography Enji
Enkhjargal Erkhembayar
was born in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Although none of her family members were musicians, she learned the traditions of Mongolian folk song and dance from a young age and later also the art of the more than thousand-year-old traditional "Urtiin Duu" (Long Song), which she still regards as an important part of her cultural heritage considered.
After a successful bachelor's degree in music education at the State University of Mongolia (SUIS), she was accepted into the "Goethe-Musiklabor Ulan Bator" (GMUB) project in 2014, which is the very first project for jazz music in her homeland and originated from an excellence project of the Goethe Institute and was founded by Professor h.c. Martin Zenker is headed. Through the project, she got to know jazz music and the opportunity to meet and learn from well-known teachers from all over the world. She fell in love with this music from then on and found her own voice in jazz, such a soulful beauty of music that comes naturally from the heart.
In 2015, Enkhjargal made his debut in the first big band tour in Mongolia's history, together with the GMUB Big Band led by the renowned big band leader Michael Lutzeier.
In 2016 she recorded her first album 'ENJI - Mongolian Song' in Munich, together with drum legend Billy Hart, Professor Johannes Enders on saxophone, Paul Kirby on piano and Martin Zenker on bass. She worked intensively on the music of the Mongolian composer Gonchigsumlaa Sembe. The album was released on ENJA Records in 2017.
In 2016 she was invited with her band to the renowned Koktebel Jazz Festival, where she delighted the audience.
Enkhjargal has been studying at the Munich University of Music and Theater since 2018. She completed her master's degree in jazz singing in February 2020 with top marks.
During her studies, she was involved in numerous engagements, including to South Korea, where she was a guest on behalf of the Goethe Institute, or to South Africa, where she performed with Kevin Gibson and Professor Andrew Lilley, among others. With her own band she played on numerous stages in Europe and abroad.
She currently leads her own band as a singer, composer and arranger, with which she also received the Jazz Promotion Prize 2020 from the Konzertgesellschaft München e.V. In addition, together with the two Mongolian singers, she leads her vocal ensemble Enji's Sisters, which also recorded its debut album in Ulaanbaatar in February 2020.
In the summer semester of 2020, Enkhjargal began her second master’s degree at the HMT Munich in jazz pedagogy, because teaching music is a matter close to her heart. During this time she also supervises the exchange program between the HMT Munich and the State Conservatory of Mongolia as a tutor, which is funded by the DAAD as part of the ISAP partnership.
