European jazz to echo in İzmir

İZMİR – Doğan News Agency

The 23rd İzmir European Jazz Festival, organized by the İzmir Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSEV), will be held between March 3 and 19.

The festival will host 11 concerts, says İKSEV Executive Board Chair Filiz Eczacıbaşı Sarper. 

“As well as concerts, the festival will feature workshops, an exhibition, a seminar, a film screening and talks. The festival poster has been determined as a result of a competition. Also, 35 posters … will be displayed at an exhibition in the opening day of the festival.” 

İlhan Erşahin, who has been living in New York for 20 years, will give the opening concert of the festival with his project, İlhan Erşahin’s Istanbul Sessions, on March 3 at the Ahmet Adnan Saygun Arts Center (AASSM). The band will perform works from their third studio album, “Istanbul Underground.” 

On March 5, İzmir’s jazz lovers will have a chance to listen to acclaimed German pianist Markus Horn’s soundtrack for F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu – A Symphony of Horror” accompanied by the silent movie.

The VEIN Trio featuring Oğuz Büyükberber from Switzerland, French rising star Agathe Jazz Quartet and Slovakians Maria Kmetkova on harp and Pavol Bereza on guitar will perform at the festival, along with the Ayça Gündüz Quartet featuring Greek jazz pianist George Kontrafouris, award-winning Juan Garcia-Herreros “Snow Owl” from Austria, Florin Raducanu Jazz Balance from Romania, outstanding guitarist and instructor Luca Costantini from Italy and Piotr Baron Quintet representing Polish Jazz.

This year, a number of “Open Events” will also be organized as part of the festival. A Lindy Hop dance workshop, a Jazz-motion stop-motion animation workshop, a poem and jazz conversation and a jazz records conversation have been added to the program alongside with the traditional workshops, exhibitions and seminars that take place every year.

Tickets for the 23rd İzmir European Jazz Festival are available at Biletix. Prices are range between 25 and 50 Turkish Liras for the opening concert and 25 liras for all other concerts.