Jazzfest Community Week

27.10.–2.11.2025

With its community and outreach programme offering free admission, Jazzfest Berlin invites local figures, initiatives from Moabit and festival musicians to experience jazz as a living art form and open field for experimentation.

Building upon Jazzfest Community Lab Moabit 2024, this year Jazzfest Berlin will once again continue its close collaboration with the Jazz Institute Berlin, which will open its doors wide for rehearsals and concerts and fill the Moabit district with music in ten neighbourhood concerts featuring more than 20 students. There will also be new editions in expanded form of both the seminar “Artistic Leadership” and the Jazzfest ImproLab for Kids. Plus, there will be an exciting new project, the Jazzfest Community Film Lab at the Gropius Bau and in Moabit, in which 60 participants – including children from the ImproLab, teenagers from the workshop at TheaterX and musicians from the newly founded transcultural community ensemble Moabit Imaginarium – develop a community film with international filmmakers. The festival week will open on Monday evening with a kick-off event at PAS Berlin, and we will celebrate a rousing conclusion of the Jazzfest Community Week at the Jazz Institute Berlin with a closing event on Friday. Join us, we look forward to seeing you there!

A person standing in the empty Atrium at Gropius Bau

Jazzfest Community Film Lab, creative team meeting

Jazzfest Community Film Lab

As part of this year’s Jazzfest Community Week, the Jazzfest Community Film Lab will unfold across the Gropius Bau and various locations in Moabit. Over several months, a multidisciplinary project will take shape through a collective process involving international filmmakers, musicians and the workshop leaders of the Jazzfest Community Week. Together, they will create a film that explores questions of belonging, dreams and trauma in a world undergoing rapid transformation. More than 60 participants – including artists, children and musicians – will take part in the filming during the festival week, contributing their voices to a vibrant and collaborative production.

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Jazzfest ImproLab for Kids

27.10–31.10.

At the Jazzfest ImproLab, children can become familiar with the art of improvisation under the guidance of interdisciplinary artists and educators from the fields of music, songwriting, theatre, dance and painting.

During the five workshop days, participants can experiment, dance and make music, regardless of any prior musical experience, and without any pressure to perform. Participants visit the play space BAUBAU at Gropius Bau and take part in the Jazzfest Community Film Lab, where the children, together with musicians from the festival and various players from Moabit, are involved as artists in a film shoot at the Gropius Bau.

Workshop leaders: Nelly Thea Köster, Yvonne Leppin, Camilo Milton, Cenk Arpa
Participating schools: Mullewapp e. V. & Miriam-Makeba-Grundschule, SOS-Kinderdorf Berlin: Hort an der Theodor-Heuss-Gemeinschaftsschule

Children sit in a circle and stretch their arms in the air. In the centre of the circle, another child is curled up into a little package.

Jazzfest ImproLabs 2024

Workshop Leaders

Three musicians play in atmospheric surroundings. Small lanterns are hung up.

Jazzfest Special as part of the Jazzfest Community Lab Moabit 2024

Moabit Imaginarium

Moabit Imaginarium is a musical encounter project aimed at building bridges among different musicians and their respective artistic scenes. Professional musicians from the quarter of Moabit with diverse musical backgrounds will gather to experiment with representatives of the Berlin jazz scene and develop a transcultural repertoire. The newly formed ensemble offers up to ten artists the time and space for exchange, (re)discoveries and artistic research. In addition to participating in the Jazzfest Community Film Lab, the Moabit Imaginarium can be experienced live on Friday at the Jazz Institute Berlin and on Sunday on the Main Stage at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

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NextGen

From Monday to Friday, Jazzfest Berlin invites over 20 students from the Jazz Institute Berlin to perform free lunch concerts and neighbourhood sessions in Moabit, with the latter being open to anyone interested in music for active participation. Venues include a local pub, community cafés and the SOS-Kinderdorf Berlin, an intercultural multigenerational house. The concert of the European cooperation project Melting Pot will also take place as part of the monthly Carla Jam at the Jazz Institute Berlin.

Furthermore, the new edition of the seminar “Artistic Leadership” by the Hanns Eisler School of Music will offer students the opportunity for stimulating exchanges with musicians participating at this year’s festival.

Learn more about Artistic Leadership

Four musicians play together. They are feeling the music.

Melting Pot, 2024

Programme

The Jazzfest Community Week programme is funded by

Thanks to all 60 participants, 35 musicians, 6 workshop leaders and 12 partners of the Jazzfest Community Week.