Jazzfest Community Week

Anthony Braxton, one of the defining figures of contemporary avant-garde music, meets the next generation of jazz musicians. As part of a multi-day workshop, the visionary composer and multi-instrumentalist offers around 25 students from the Jazz Institute Berlin (JIB) insights into his artistic practice. The JIB Creative Music Orchestra formed during the workshop will present one of the highlights of this year’s Jazzfest Community Week with a concert at JIB’s Georg-Neumann-Saal.

This year’s ImproLabs bring together about 35 children from two primary schools at Kulturmanege Moabit and KULTURFABRIK Moabit. While one workshop, developed in cooperation with OTTO-Spielplatz, combines circus arts and interdisciplinary improvisation around the theme of time travel, a theatre lab explores chaos and order in Moabit’s urban landscape. Musician Joel Grip accompanies both ImproLabs, enriching the collaborative process with musical perspectives. The programme concludes with a performance by the two workshop groups in the circus tent, where participants share the pieces and ideas they have developed with one another, as well as with their families and friends.

Workshop leaders: Yvonne Leppin, Théa Haug, Philine Stich, Juliane Meckert, Joel Grip

Participating schools: Mullewapp e. V. & Miriam-Makeba-Grundschule, SOS-Kinderdorf Berlin-Moabit: Hort an der Theodor-Heuss-Gemeinschaftsschule

From Monday to Saturday, Jazzfest Berlin invites 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-Moabit, an intercultural multigenerational house. 

The new edition of the Artistic Leadership seminar by the Hanns Eisler School of Music offers students the opportunity to engage in dialogue with international musicians featured in this year’s festival programme. Anthony Braxton and Alexander von Schlippenbach, two seminal figures in improvised music, will be at the centre of these exchanges.

The European collaboration project Melting Pot also returns, bringing together outstanding young improvising musicians from four European cities. The project will take place as part of the monthly Carla Jam at the Jazz Institute Berlin.