Tuscia in Jazz Festival

Tuscia in Jazz Festival, has now reached its eleventh year of activity (2012) and besides being deeply rooted in the Province of Viterbo and surroundings, (Lower Etruria, Italy) it also holds a strong international dimension and vocation. The TIJ Festival has been recently recognised (2011) from the Italian specialized magazine JAZZIT as the second best Italian jazz festival.

Every year the greatest stars of the jazz international scene, students travelling from locations as far as Mexico and Australia and passionate jazz fans coming at times from hundreds of kilometres away, gather in the locations of the Tuscia in jazz festival.

In this beautiful scenario, music and namely jazz are of very high quality and nevertheless not considered as an elitarian rite but, rather, a joyful event open to all.

Having started in 2002 in the small medieval town of Ronciglione, NW of Rome, thanks to the crazy passion of a small group of courageous, Tuscia in Jazz festival is presently spread out to ten towns of the Province of Viterbo, including the homonymous town Viterbo. The festival offers over 150 musical events – for the great majority free of charge (all concerts held outdoors are free) master classes attended by an average of 300 students per year, and has expanded to an intense record production of its events, which is also internationally distributed.

It must be also highlighted that the Tuscia in Jazz Festival hosts the Jimmy Woode European Jazz Award, dedicated to the memory of the famous bass player and to the specific role of European contribution to jazz. This competition, open to young musicians under 30, awards the winners with the chance of playing together with the big shots of the jazz scene and to eventually record their work with them.

Since several years, the Tuscia In Jazz Festival has been also awarded the honour of representing Italy in New York, collaborating with Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Italian Culture Institute to the Italian Jazz Days, a festival entirely devoted to Italian jazz, that is held every year in New York, USA, during the celebrations of the Columbus Day.

More recently, the TIJ festival has started a collaboration with the Australian and Canadian jazz scenes in order to create occasions for the next coming future collaborations.

We feel that – although with an already strong background and successful present reality – Tuscia in Jazz Festival is at the beginning of a new exciting era.