İzmir Jazz Festival announces program

İZMİR - Anadolu Agency

The 21st İzmir European Jazz Festival will start on March 3 at the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Arts Center.

he 21st İzmir European Jazz Festival, organized by the İzmir Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSEV) will kick off on March 3. 

At a press conference held to announce the festival program, İKSEV President Filiz Eczacıbaşı Sarper said this year’s program would be more comprehensive than the previous years. She said the festival would start on March 3 at the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Arts Center (AASSM) with exhibition openings, a cocktail party and an opening concert, adding the young graphic artists, who won award at the 12th Jazz Poster competition, would be presented their awards before the opening concert. 

Sarper said that to commemorate the 600th year of relations between Poland and Turkey, a graphic exhibition titled “Jazz on the Cover” would open with the attendance of renowned names of Polish jazz and graphic art. “The festival, which is a member of the European Jazz Network [EJN], will provide educational opportunities to young jazz musicians this year like the previous years. Those who attend the six workshops during the festival will join the two final concerts of the event. This will be a chance for them to play on an international stage,” she said. 

Apart from the workshops and seminars to be held at the Academy İKSEV, all other events will be organized at AASSM. The festival will feature 14 concerts, three of which are free, along with two exhibitions, two seminars and six workshops. 

The festival’s opening concert will be performed by the Furio Di Castri Quartet, formed of Italy’s notable virtuoso and contrabass artist Furio Di Castri, Jacopo Albini (tenor saxophone), Fabio Giachino (piano) and Ruben Bellavi (drums). The concert will start at 8:30 p.m. 

Ulrich Drechsler and Stefano Battaglia will meet the audience on the second day of the event. 
KALİMA, formed by the pioneers of modern jazz, Sascha Ley (vocal), Laia Genc (piano) and Anne Kaftan (soprano, saxophone, bass clarinet) will be on the stage March 5. Benjamin Hermann will be accompanied by Ernst Lerum (contrabass) and Joost Patocka (drum) during his concert March 10. 

Kürşat And to be remembered 

İzmir’s jazz musician Kürşat And (photo), who passed away last year, will be commemorated with the “In’n Out” concert to be performed by pianist-composer Eda And and her trio, Sibel Köse, İmer Demirer, Neşet Ruacan, Volkan Hürsever and Ateş Tezer March 11. 

Lithuanian jazz musicians Group Dainius Pulauskas, Ondrej Krajnak, Gregory Privat, Uli Kempendorff and Timuçin Şahin are among the performers at the festival. 

The closing concert of the 21st İzmir European jazz Festival will be performed by the Maciej Obara International Quintet March 20.