On Thursday 24th September over 200 professionals working in jazz and improvised music from all over Europe will gather in Budapest for 4 days for the European Jazz Conference 2015. Artistic Directors and Managers from the main jazz Festivals, clubs, venues, national organisations and agencies from 38 different countries will come together to learn from each other’s experiences and build new collaborations.
The European Jazz Conference is the most important annual meeting of jazz professionals in Europe, in particular of promoters, presenters and jazz support organisations. What was the General Assembly of the Europe Jazz Network (EJN), from 2014 became the European Jazz Conference and it is now opened to external participants upon registration. Each year the European Jazz Conference is hosted in a different European city by a member organisation of the Europe Jazz Network.
For the year 2015, the city of Budapest, Hungary, was selected to host the European Jazz Conference between 24 and 27 September. The Conference is co-organised by the Europe Jazz Network and the Budapest Music Center, a music landmark of the city founded by trombone player and academy professor László Gőz in 1996. The conference is financed by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and by the Central Bank of Hungary.
László Gőz, Founder and Director of BMC, commented: “I am filled with both pride and excitement to know that between 24 and 27 September fine exponents of European jazz will use this space, which I hope will be a worthy venue for this year’s European Jazz Conference. As host I can wish the participants nothing better than excellent professional events, outstanding concerts, stimulating conversations and new friendships”.
Ros Rigby, President of Europe Jazz Network, added: “We are looking forward very much to the European Jazz Conference, where we will welcome many expert and fascinating speakers from around the globe, and enjoy the concert programme carefully curated by our hard working hosts at the Budapest Music Centre. László and his colleagues have created a world class venue and the conference’s theme ‘Make it Happen!’ was inspired by their example of achievement despite numerous challenges, which we all face in what continue to be difficult times”.
The European Jazz Conference is a unique event, the only one of its kind in Europe, centred on building relationships between jazz professionals, developing new projects and artistic collaborations, sharing expertise and getting up to date with the newest management and programming trends. The theme for the 2015 Conference is ‘Make it Happen’, with a positive focus on successful projects and original ideas that were implemented despite the many challenges of the music industry nowadays.
The European Jazz conference is composed of keynote speeches, debates, working groups and networking sessions, which will give to participants the possibility to connect with hundreds between the main jazz promoters in Europe. There will be also an evening programme of showcases, with the best Hungarian jazz presented to all participants. The keynote speech of the opening session is given by Christopher Dell, Professor at HafenCity University Hamburg and world-renowned vibraphone player, which will give a lecture/performance and share his thoughts on the theme of“Improvisation on urbanity”.
The Conference is also about learning of jazz scenes and best practices from all around the world, including countries beyond Europe. The conference session “The world is not enough” includes as panellists Benjamim Taubkin from Brazil,Santiago Gardeazábal from Colombia and Alexandra Archetti Stølen from Argentina/Norway, all cultural managers that will portrait some of the buzzing realities emerging from that part of the world.
The session “Somewhere in Europe”, instead, will include Festival’s Directors from Greece, Bosnia & Herzegovina,Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, that will give some interesting insights into the jazz scenes of Southeast Europe.
Working groups and networking sessions will be specifically focussed on the sharing of information and best practices between professionals, and will cover themes such as fundraising, audience development, communication and digital tools, adventurous programming and an open space for developing new projects ideas. In addition, there will be working groups for discussing further developments of EJN projects that were financed through the Creative Europe grant 2014-2017, including “Take the Green Train”, on environmental sustainability in music, “Jazz across Europe”, EJN’s cultural tourism project, and “Jazz for Young People”, on composing and programming music for young audiences.
Moreover, every evening at the venue there will be showcases of the most interesting jazz ensembles in Hungary including the elder statesman of Hungarian jazz Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, the number one exponent of Hungarian ethno-jazzMihály Dresch, the leading contemporary Hungarian big band MAO with Tony Lakatos, a top-line European saxophonist and the soloist of the Radio Big Band in Frankfurt, and singer-songwriter Veronika Harcsa with guitarist Bálint Gyémánt.
For more information:
Stefano Zucchiatti
Europe Jazz Network - Communication Manager
email: stefano@europejazz.net
mobile: +39 339 6969909
www.europejazz.net
János Erlitz
Budapest Music Center - Communication Manager
e-mail: janos.erlitz@bmc.hu
mobile: +36 30 239 2745
tel: +36 1 455 8078
www.bmc.hu
To download the conference programme:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByqNKEk_8FJwTFNZVVRYcFhEWVk
For more info on the showcases programme:
http://www.europejazz.net/ejc-showcases
General information:
http://www.europejazz.net/ejc-about
The European Jazz Conference is the most important annual meeting of jazz professionals in Europe, in particular of promoters, presenters and jazz support organisations. What was the General Assembly of the Europe Jazz Network (EJN), from 2014 became the European Jazz Conference and it is now opened to external participants upon registration. Each year the European Jazz Conference is hosted in a different European city by a member organisation of the Europe Jazz Network.
For the year 2015, the city of Budapest, Hungary, was selected to host the European Jazz Conference between 24 and 27 September. The Conference is co-organised by the Europe Jazz Network and the Budapest Music Center, a music landmark of the city founded by trombone player and academy professor László Gőz in 1996. The conference is financed by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and by the Central Bank of Hungary.
László Gőz, Founder and Director of BMC, commented: “I am filled with both pride and excitement to know that between 24 and 27 September fine exponents of European jazz will use this space, which I hope will be a worthy venue for this year’s European Jazz Conference. As host I can wish the participants nothing better than excellent professional events, outstanding concerts, stimulating conversations and new friendships”.
Ros Rigby, President of Europe Jazz Network, added: “We are looking forward very much to the European Jazz Conference, where we will welcome many expert and fascinating speakers from around the globe, and enjoy the concert programme carefully curated by our hard working hosts at the Budapest Music Centre. László and his colleagues have created a world class venue and the conference’s theme ‘Make it Happen!’ was inspired by their example of achievement despite numerous challenges, which we all face in what continue to be difficult times”.
The European Jazz Conference is a unique event, the only one of its kind in Europe, centred on building relationships between jazz professionals, developing new projects and artistic collaborations, sharing expertise and getting up to date with the newest management and programming trends. The theme for the 2015 Conference is ‘Make it Happen’, with a positive focus on successful projects and original ideas that were implemented despite the many challenges of the music industry nowadays.
The European Jazz conference is composed of keynote speeches, debates, working groups and networking sessions, which will give to participants the possibility to connect with hundreds between the main jazz promoters in Europe. There will be also an evening programme of showcases, with the best Hungarian jazz presented to all participants. The keynote speech of the opening session is given by Christopher Dell, Professor at HafenCity University Hamburg and world-renowned vibraphone player, which will give a lecture/performance and share his thoughts on the theme of“Improvisation on urbanity”.
The Conference is also about learning of jazz scenes and best practices from all around the world, including countries beyond Europe. The conference session “The world is not enough” includes as panellists Benjamim Taubkin from Brazil,Santiago Gardeazábal from Colombia and Alexandra Archetti Stølen from Argentina/Norway, all cultural managers that will portrait some of the buzzing realities emerging from that part of the world.
The session “Somewhere in Europe”, instead, will include Festival’s Directors from Greece, Bosnia & Herzegovina,Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, that will give some interesting insights into the jazz scenes of Southeast Europe.
Working groups and networking sessions will be specifically focussed on the sharing of information and best practices between professionals, and will cover themes such as fundraising, audience development, communication and digital tools, adventurous programming and an open space for developing new projects ideas. In addition, there will be working groups for discussing further developments of EJN projects that were financed through the Creative Europe grant 2014-2017, including “Take the Green Train”, on environmental sustainability in music, “Jazz across Europe”, EJN’s cultural tourism project, and “Jazz for Young People”, on composing and programming music for young audiences.
Moreover, every evening at the venue there will be showcases of the most interesting jazz ensembles in Hungary including the elder statesman of Hungarian jazz Béla Szakcsi Lakatos, the number one exponent of Hungarian ethno-jazzMihály Dresch, the leading contemporary Hungarian big band MAO with Tony Lakatos, a top-line European saxophonist and the soloist of the Radio Big Band in Frankfurt, and singer-songwriter Veronika Harcsa with guitarist Bálint Gyémánt.
For more information:
Stefano Zucchiatti
Europe Jazz Network - Communication Manager
email: stefano@europejazz.net
mobile: +39 339 6969909
www.europejazz.net
János Erlitz
Budapest Music Center - Communication Manager
e-mail: janos.erlitz@bmc.hu
mobile: +36 30 239 2745
tel: +36 1 455 8078
www.bmc.hu
To download the conference programme:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByqNKEk_8FJwTFNZVVRYcFhEWVk
For more info on the showcases programme:
http://www.europejazz.net/ejc-showcases
General information:
http://www.europejazz.net/ejc-about
