12.03.2010 - 19:30
10 Days of Music - The Festival Keeps on Growing

South Tyrol Jazz Festival 2010 - Press Conference



The South Tyrol Jazz Festival is constantly moving forward, involving more and more of South Tyrol. The 28th edition of the music event will take place from 25 June to 4 July 2010 and stretch across the entire province. It will present more than 60 concerts in every part of South Tyrol - with some sensational new features.

The centre of the Festival will remain Bozen/Bolzano, the city where it was first launched, underlines Klaus Widmann, the chairman of the Festival. Here the Festival will see its opening night and eight of the ten key events, the "Mainstage" concerts, will also take place in Bozen. "We are particularly proud of this year's opening concert, for which we could engage the Israeli singer Noa, a star of international fame, who will come to Bozen with a unique project in her luggage. The final act of the festival will again be celebrated by a female voice of world renown: the US singer Dianne Reeves", reveals Widmann. Two concerts of the "Mainstage" series will take place in Sterzing/Vipiteno and Meran/Merano.

"Jazz and the cities" - The Festival is Expanding

For Widmann one of the crucial characteristics of the Festival is the growing involvement of more and more cities and districts. In addition to the cities of Meran/Merano, Brixen/Bressanone and Bruneck/Brunico, the Vinschgau valley/Val Venosta will participate for the first time with a broad array of events. Concerts are scheduled for Mals/Malles, Schluderns/Sluderno, Laas/Lasa and Schlanders/Silandro. "This year we are offering our audience a cultural event of unprecedented scope in South Tyrol: it will be the only province-wide Festival with such a high concentration of high quality and international top jazz", the chairman points out. "I'm more than happy that the programme we offer is gaining the approval of more and more decision-makers and an ever larger audience from South Tyrol." But also a growing number of tourists book their stay in South Tyrol during festival time. Last year the music event counted approximately 15,000 visitors.

The cooperation of the Jazz festival with the municipalities of the province go far beyond the formal agreements with the city councils: In Meran, for example, the festival has established cooperation with the outdoor swimming pool, the thermal spa, Trauttmansdorff castle and the leisure resort Meran 2000. In Brixen several innkeepers have taken the initiative of organising events. In Bruneck the businesses of the area work closely together with the organisers of the Festival. In Bozen examples of active collaborators are the Museion, the Theatre and the Filmclub cinema, just to name a few. On top of that, 28 shops are planning their own jazz mile: each of them will tell the story of one of the years in the history of the South Tyrol Jazz Festival.


Established Series and New Entries

The concert schedule includes a restaging of the popular concert series Jazz & Wine (for the first time featuring an event in the South Tyrolean Unterland/Bassa Atesina), Jazz on the Mountains and Jazz & Banking by Sparkasse. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the venerable Hotel Laurin there will be some special performances, and - last but not least: two projects called "Jazz Train" and "Jazz Boat". Take a ride on the Vinschgau Valley Railway and make it an exciting concert trip. Or, for those who would rather be out in the fresh air and cycle from Meran to Bozen, there will be a raft on the river Etsch/Adige with on board an eight-strong brass band from Germany accompanying the cyclists with their jazz tunes.

The South Tyrolean Jazz Scene

Local jazz musicians have become a more and more important element of the Festival. Just like last year, the South Tyrol Jazz Festival again commissioned its own production for 2010: Michl Lösch's project "Sweet Alps". The pianist and composer from South Tyrol will produce a football-related opus on the occasion of the 2010 World Cup, taking place at the same time as the Festival, in which German-speaking and Italian-speaking jazz musicians create a musical sketch imagining a hypothetical football final in which Germany plays Italy.
For the first time the local music schools take part in the programme. At the opening and closing events of the festival students of the music schools in Bozen, Meran, Brixen and Bruneck show their musical talent. Chairman Klaus Widmann is convinced that "the festival will be an enrichment and source of inspiration for our young local musicians, as they can witness jazz performances of the highest standard, develop new ideas. And at the same time they get a chance to share the stage with the top stars of the international jazz scene."




Bozen/Bolzano, February 19th 2010

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