Presenting both style-defining icons of jazz and young positions from a wide variety of styles, Jazzfest Berlin presents a festival programme full of creative border-crossings and collective visions.
Founded in 1964 the Berlin Jazz Festival is one of the longest running European festivals of international renown.
Known as Berliner Jazztage until 1980 it was directed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt (1964–72), George Gruntz (1973–94), Albert Mangelsdorff (1995–2000), Nils Landgren (2001, 2008–11), John Corbett (2002), Peter Schulze (2003–07), Bert Noglik (2012–14) and Richard Williams (2015–17) and is curated since 2018 by the curator Nadin Deventer.
Whereas famous US-jazz celebrities set the tone during the first decades, the Berlin Jazz Festival increasingly has presented artists from all around the globe, with an increasing emphasis on contemporary European jazz.
Presently residing at Haus der Berliner Festspiele, a 1000-seater theatre run by the festival’s parent company Berliner Festspiele, plus a couple of satellite venues, the festival mostly draws capacity audiences, with media partners ARD (public)radio(system) and Deutschlandradio documenting the musical scope by simulcasts and live-recordings.
Jazzfest Berlin has received the 2021 EJNAward for Adventurous Programming of the Europe Jazz Network. It convinced an international jury of six artists and programmers and was selected from among 16 other festivals, clubs and concert venues, nominated in advance by the more than 160 EJN member organizations from 34 countries.