KRAKÓW JAZZ WEEK, SEIFERT COMPETITION

Name: KRAKÓW JAZZ WEEK, SEIFERT COMPETITION
Start: 2024-09-26T19:00:00+02:00
End: 2024-09-29T23:59:00+02:00
Location: Cricoteka

Schedule

Thu Sep 26 2024 at 07:00 pm to Sun Sep 29 2024 at 11:59 pm

UTC+02:00

Location

Cricoteka | Krakow, MA

Kraków Jazz Week is an umbrella brand for a fusion of events that occupy a vitally important place in the cultural landscape of Lesser Poland’s regional capital. Over eight days, two competitions and a festival will be held at the Cricoteka club situated right on the bank of the Vistula River at the very heart of the city. KJW opens with events that commemorate one of Kraków’s most outstanding artists: the violinist, saxophonist and composer Zbigniew Seifert.
The organisers tirelessly promote Seifert’s legacy by holding a competition of his name as well as a festival known as Seifert Jazz Days. The Seifert Competition, held already for the sixth time, has undoubtedly proved its efficacy as a way of reviving and cultivating the output of that Kraków-based musician. Owing to its international character, it perfectly promotes Seifert’s music not only at home, but also worldwide. The broad response to this year’s edition prove that the fame of the violin genius from Kraków has reached all continents, and that the Competition itself as well as Kraków Jazz Week have become a strongly recognisable brand to be reckoned with in the global music market. While drawing on its history and continuing the splendid traditions of the Jazz Juniors Festival, the brand also stands for new qualities represented by the biennial Seifert Competition and Seifert Jazz Days.
SEIFERT COMPETITION 26 - 29 September 2024
• CRICOTEKA / MAIN STAGE
Already for the sixth time, young musicians take up the challenge of performing Zbigniew Seifert’s music – undoubtedly one of the most original phenomena in jazz music history. Instrumentalists from all over the world, including such faraway places as Japan, Brazil, and Taiwan, have entered the Competition. The semi-finalists represent many continents and countries, including a large group of Polish violinists.
Ten artists, selected by an international jury consisting of Michał Urbaniak, Anja Lechner, and Ernst Reijseger on the basis of submitted entries, will perform on 26 and 27 September on Kraków Jazz Week’s main stage in Cricoteka. The list of Seifert Competition semi-finalists is as follows:
Anais Drago (Italy), Tomohiro Ishii (Japan), Aleksandra Kryńska (Poland), Wojtek Maciejowski (Poland), Andrew Finn Magill Music (USA), Amalia Umeda Obrębowska (Poland), Chase Potter (USA), Hugo Van Rechem (France), Michał Schab (Poland), João da Silva (Portugal).
SEIFERT COMPETITION’S GALA CONCERT: 29 September 2024
• CRICOTEKA / MAIN STAGE

Apart from the winners’ concert, the first part of this year’s Kraków Jazz Week ends will a performance by an unusual cello-and-piano duo: Anja Lechner and François Couturier, one of the world’s leading cello ensembles, whose music has for years been inextricably linked to jazz and improvisation. They delight audiences with their imaginative interpretations, ease and expertise. Their contribution is the more valuable since, despite featuring in some jazz bands since the late 1940s, the cello is still neither popular nor by any means obvious in this genre.