İzmir European Jazz Festival kick off with Kerem Görsev

IZMIR - Hürriyet Daily News

The İzmir European Jazz Festival open its doors for the 20th time today. The festival is one of the main events helping İzmir to spread its name in the international arena.

Organized by the İzmir Culture, Arts and Education Foundation (İKSEV), the festival started yesterday and will continue until March 20, hosting many famous jazz musicians and also workshops organized by the Academy İKSEV. Young musicians will meet with the professionals on stage during the workshops.

Ten concerts

The festival is taking place at the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Art Center with 10 different concerts. Alongside the concerts, two exhibitions including the “Jazz Festival Poset Competition” and Aykut Uslutekin’s “Magic of Jazz” photography show will be on display.

The festival’s first concert, the “Kerem Görsev Therapy Project and Festival Strings” concert, featured yesterday the accompaniment of Ernie Watts, Kağan Yıldız, Ferit Odman and one of the most famous European jazz musicians, Alan Broadbent. A total of 31 stringed instrument musicians will also be at the stage with Kerem Görsev and other musicians.

The Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet, which took its place on the jazz lists throughout last summer with their album “True,” is another famous guest at the festival. The David Helbock Trio, who are interpreting Austrian music in a different way, Colombia-born harpist Edmar Castaneda and his friend, Marcin Wasilewski, The Pablo Held Trio, and François Cornelup will also be appearing at the festival in İzmir.

The closing concert will be performed by Italian jazz musician Mauro Grossi Quintet on March 20, organized in collaboration with the İzmir Italian Embassy. Musicians Claudia Tellini, Nico Gori, Ares Tavolazzi and Italy’s most talented jazz drummer, Walter Paoli, will accompany Grossi at the concert.

Supporting young musicians

İKSEV executive Manager Filiz Eczacıbaşı Sarper said that this year all musicians attending the festival would meet with young people during workshops. “This year we tried to prepare one of the best programs for art lovers and we will organize various workshops. The aim is to attract more young people to the festival,” she said.

“Open jazz workshops will be resulted with bourses to the young musicians from Siena Summer Courses,” Sarper said, adding that the festival was also widely perceived as a “youth festival” with so many events dedicated to young people.

The young people who will attend workshops by the Mauro Grossi Quintet will be sharing their experiences on stage with the audiences. On the same night, the names who have won this year’s Siena grants will be announced on stage, said Sarper.

She explained that the “Open Stage” concert that will take place on March 18 will be particularly important, as it will also include musicians that participated in the Siena Summer Courses in earlier years.

The Open Jazz Orchestra, which has become one of the classic features of the İzmir European Jazz Festival, will be on stage on March 19.

Emphasizing that the festival becomes stronger and more dynamic with the support that it receives from the youth, Sarper also stressed that it was open to all ages. “The attendance of the youth in our events and competitions make us very happy,” she said.