Delegates

Thomas was born in the former GDR in Jena. After high school he started studying physics and became a physicist at the Carl Zeiss factory. In 1980 he was a co-founder of the Jazz in Paradise jazzclub. After the political turn in 1990 he started with the Jazzmeile Thüringen festival and has been an artistic director ever since. In 2013, the Jazzmeile Thüringen received the Art award of the free state of Thuringia.

Steffen was a booker for the renowned Turm Jazzclub series and the International Moritzburg Jazzfestival in his hometown Halle. From 1997 to 2012 he was running his booking agency Subtone Concerts. Since 2009 he's been working as a CEO and artistic director of Jazzclub Tonne in Dresden/Germany. Steffen is a member of the Bundeskonferenz Jazz/Federal Jazz Conference Germany and also artistic director of Jazz Talentzz in Leipzig.

Dušan is a booking agent at the Earth Music music agency. The agency's roster includes artists like Dubioza kolektiv, Omer Klein, Cash Savage & The Last Drinks, Invisible World, Džambo Aguševi Orkestar, Tim Eriksen, Mina Agossi, Terne Čhave etc. He’s also a founder and artistic director of Colour Meeting festival (est. 2001) and promoter of Prague concert series Earth Music Concerts. Furthermore he’s a member of the advisory board of SoundCzech, the grant committee of Ministry of Culture of Czech Republic and the board of Music Managers Forum CR.

Dominic is the director of Teddy D Promotions Ltd. a concert promotion company based in Dublin, Ireland. We have been presenting acts in Ireland since 2012. Acts presented include Ahmad Jamal, Charles Lloyd, Joey Alexander, The Manhattan Transfer and Avishai Cohen. We have also presented some emerging acts such as Shalosh, Olivia Trummer, Gilad Hekelsman, Libor Smoldas, Beka Gochiashvili. Following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions we aim to resume our monthly International Jazz Series in Dublin's Lost Lane venue. A concert series aimed at providing an opportunity for overseas acts to make an impact on the Irish jazz scene.

Peter is the founder of Alessa Records label for jazz, world music and blues (he produced up to 500 albums to date). He’s also the founder and artistic director of various jazz/improvised music festivals and events in Austria including the Jazz Festival in Steyr, blues series in Linz organized in collaboration with the chamber of labour called Tuesday the Bluesday and STIWA Jazzforum in Hagenberg among others.

Ronnie Scott's has remained a central constant in Paul's lifelong love affair with jazz. Over the past 10 years, Paul has made focussed efforts to present European jazz in London particularly collaborations with Norwegian, Czech, Latvian and Dutch-based musicians and is keen to further links with the vibrant global scene as well as the currently burgeoning UK scene.

Caroline was born in France and studied piano, musicology and arts management at the Sorbonne University in Paris. After work experiences in different organisations, she currently lives in St. Pölten and works as the artistic director of the Jazz Festival (Jazz im Hof) and the Baroque Music Festival St. Pölten (Barockfestival St.Pölten). Both festivals feature local as well as international artists from the world music and jazz scene.

Krzysztof is a journalist, founder of Donos kulturalny. He’s a managing editor of jazzpress.pl web page. He writes for polishjazz.blogspot.com and prestigious Polish jazz magazines JazzPRESS and Jazz Forum. Frequent collaborator of Radio Jazz FM and a host of Kino Jazz events.

Christoph works freelance as a music writer for various publications, print and online, amongst them Germany’s renowned jazz magazines Jazz thing and Jazzthetik. He’s a founder of „musicadomundo“ concert agency which promotes and organizes concerts with international artists from the world music and jazz scene. Christoph is also the co-founder and artistic director of the „JazzNacht Zollverein“, an annual music event at UNESCO world heritage site Zeche Zollverein in Essen, Germany.

Anna is a freelance music journalist, PR specialist, director of the Nouvelle Prague festival and conference and the deputy editor-in-chief of the Cultural Magazine UNI. She has worked as the Head of Communications at Ameba Production (organizer of Rock For People festival and Prague Summer Festival). She also manages the Belarussian-Czech duo Zabelov Group and singer-songwriter David Pomahač. She's a member of the grant committee of the Ministry of Culture for Alternative Music and member of the advisory board of the Czech pro-export office SoundCzech.

Saša Pastorková is the founder of Spectaculum production, an independent music organization through which she conducts most of her cultural activities. Spectaculum production organizes international music festivals Zvuk for Stiavnica, Zvuk for Modra, and Saša is its creative director. In her free time, Saša is engaged in music journalism: She cooperates with established Slovak media. Saša is also in charge of production and booking for the music publishing house Real Music House Bratislava and manages external booking for the creative space Nová Cvernovka in Bratislava.

Márton has been working in the creative and cultural sector for over 20 years. He had the opportunity to explore the music industry through a 360° viewpoint: as a record store manager, a festival programmer (Sziget Festival, Babel Sound, European Music Day, OZORA Festival), a booking agent, a project manager for a governmental music export agency (Music Export in Hungary), a city program manager, a conference organizer (regiON, SoundQuest, Overhead, Nouvelle Prague), club promoter (Akvarium Club Budapest, West Balkan Club), tour manager, musician, radio presenter, and of course as a music addict. Since 2018 Marton works as the director of the Czech Music Office / SoundCzech.

Helge has been a project manager in the pro-export music office mica - music austria since 1994. He has coordinated several significant cultural projects in Austria and other European countries. He has participated in many creative and organizational activities within export initiatives of mica - music austria in jazz and world music genres.

Bernhard is an active jazz saxophone player who graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music and has performed with many renowned musicians worldwide. He has also been the chairman of the festival Poysdorf Jazz & Wine Summer/Jazz Werkstatt Poysdorf since 2009.

Pavla Slívová has been working as a program manager, booker and a member of the production team of Colours of Ostrava since 2009. She’s started her career as a producer in the TEMPL club during the golden era of Ostrava's famous Stodolní Street. Pavla regularly attends European conferences such as IFF, WOMEX, ILMC, Eurosonic.

Andreas is based in Vienna, Austria, and has been working as a music journalist for many years. As a freelancer he wrote for newspapers and magazines in Austria and Germany, since 2015 he is focusing on his job at Radio Ö1 at ORF / National Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, currently as Head of Jazz, Pop and World Music.

Paul je aktivním hudebníkem od poloviny 80. let a měl příležitost hrát s takovými muzikanty jako jsou David Murray, George Adams nebo Kirk Lightsey. Založil a vede svůj vlastní jazzový festival INNtöne v Diersbachu. Paul také vlastní malý nezávislý jazzový label PAO Records, který se soustředí na vydávání nahrávek mezinárodních jazzových hvězd i mladých rakouských talentů.

Piotr is an editor, musical journalist and curator based in Gdańsk, Poland. From 2012 to 2019 he was a contributing writer for a portal jazzarium.pl, having few hundred reviews and reports in his resume. Currently Piotr is a co-curator and member of organizing team for Jazz Jantar Festival, one of the biggest and oldest jazz events in northern Poland, and he is responsible for researching fresh and rising star artists of the European jazz scene.

Otmar lives in Graz and works as a music journalist for the Kleine Zeitung and music magazines, and runs a weekly radio broadcast. He’s the founder and director of the jazz venue StockwerkJazz in Graz (since 1994) and artistic director of the International Jazz Festival Leibnitz.

Jan is one of the founders of the Nerudný fest organization and has had a 12 years experience in the field of organizing festivals and cultural events. He’s been responsible for artistic direction of the Mladí ladí jazz festival and in 2018 he was jury member at the German prestigious showcase Jazzahead.

Ross runs all music operations for Pizza Express, covering over 1500 shows a year across multiple live music venues in the UK, including the renowned Pizza Express Jazz Club, London. With a broad international artistic programme, Ross will be keen to hear and learn more about Czech & Austrian Jazz.

Lukas has been working as a booker and a member of the team of Kulturhaus Sargfabrik in Vienna since 2016. He is responsible for the artist and production management at the venue and regularly attends the conference WOMEX.

Michal started as an independent concert booker/promoter and bands manager, gaining experience as a music curator at Centre For Contemporary Art in Warsaw. He created and developed a strategy for an alternative music sector and co-organized a number of events all over the world under the label “Don’t Panic! We’re from Poland”. Since 2019 he has been involved in the programmation of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) concert hall.

Abel promotes jazz, contemporary and classical concerts at Budapest Music Center (BMC) and Opus Jazz Club since 2017. With more than 400 concerts each year, the core mission of BMC is to present contemporary Hungarian and European music in a coordinated way as a concert venue, record label, music library, information center, and creative space.

Patrick is not only considered to be a leading Czech jazz photographer, whose shots are also taken over by foreign magazines and servers: front page of American Bass Player (Avishai Cohen), Jazz Japan, Modern Drummer, Rock & Pop, Mladá Fronta and in many others, but he has also become widely known to the world jazz fans. He is a founder and a member of a jury of the prestigious world competition called Jazz World Photo. In addition to photography, he also participates in the dramaturgy of the concert series Piano Centrum C.Bechstein Prague and collaborated in the dramaturgy of the jazz festival in Třeboň or at the C. Bechstein Satchmo Open Air.

Patrizia currently signs responsible for the artistic programming and implementation of the</p> <p>HÖFEFEST St. Pölten in Lower Austria, an annual festival utilizing private patios in the heart</p> <p>of the city by opening them up to the public via concerts, art acts and readings. Also, she</p> <p>runs communication for the Jazz im Hof Festival St. Pölten and is a booker and marketer for various Austrian and Italian ensembles in old music and jazz. Right now, Patrizia is working with Caroline Berchotteau on establishing a vibrant and constant jazz music series in St. Pölten.

Asia is the managing editor of the Polish jazz magazine Jazz Forum. Furthermore she’s a jazz promoter, executive producer, creator, director and producer of Jazz Forum Showcase powered by Szczecin Jazz, which was held in 2019 and became one of the most important endeavors promoting Polish jazz internationally. Since 2017 she has produced a platform for jazz musicians to perform at Pol’and’Rock Festival (previously called “Woodstock”), one of the biggest summer music festivals in Europe.

Hannes studied Musicology and is currently finishing his Master degree in Berlin where he is also a musician and a local promoter for pop, psychedelic, jazz and electronica. He runs a small agency called Dynamite Konzerte / Dynamite Platten promoting concert series in Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin, tour booking for German and international artists and releasing records for them as well. Hannes is responsible for the artist and production management at the Berlin’s XJAZZ! Festival and is also one of the bookers of the Jazz Edition Radebeul.

Back in the days when he worked as a glass machine operator, a guard, a porter, a storekeeper, a miner in uranium mines, a reporter, an insurance consultant, a bookseller and a seller of music media, he listened intensively to music and passionately educated himself. Now his dream came true - he also writes about music. Currently for Jazzport, HIS Voice and Týdeník Rozhlas.

Lisa studied Art and Cultural Sciences. She currently lives in Hamburg and works with Tina Heine, artistic director of Jazz & The City in Salzburg. Lisa works as her assistant and is responsible for the Artist and Production Management at the Festival.

Patrik used to write articles about jazz for several printed media already during his university studies. After graduating from university, he worked as editor and program director focused on jazz at Slovak Radio in Bratislava. In 1989 he was one of the founders of the Slovak Jazz Society and in 2005 he founded and has run the Slovak online jazz magazine skjazz.sk as editor-in-chief since.

Since 1995, Milan has been the head of the music department of Radio Proglas in Brno, where he takes care of, among others, regular interviews with musicians and many other programs about jazz, world music, blues and related music genres. He moderates the show Interview of the Month on the Czech Radio Jazz station and also writes about jazz in the printed magazines UNI and Harmonie and on the music blog Brno-music friendly city. He is a member of the international panel of radio publicists World Music Charts Europe.

Peter - singer, composer, music organizer, moderator, manager of jazz music life and promoter of the leading European jazz festival Bratislava Jazz Days - has been active in music since the early 1960s. In addition to a respectable list of bands he has performed with during his career, in 1976 he was a co-founder of the Bratislava Jazz Days festival and jazz presenter on radio. He has also been the President of the Slovak Jazz Society since 1990, a member of the Supervisory Board of SOZA and the Chairman of the Board of the Music Fund.

In addition to dedicating her studies to languages (Italian bilingual grammar school and Portuguese language, which she studied at Masaryk University in Brno), Katarína also became involved in organizing various cultural events, concerts and festivals (Uprising, Bratislava Jazz Days, Globsec and others). In 2017, she joined the Rock Pop Bratislava agency as a manager, which is the main organizer of the Bratislava Jazz Days, Jarné Jazzáky, Majáles and other festivals. In addition to working in an agency, she works as a booking manager for the band Ľudové Mladistvá.

Zdenka has been running the American Spring Festival since 2015. Festival has been presenting first-class artists and young musical talents to spectators in Prague and other cities throughout the Czech Republic. Every year, the program offers concerts of jazz and classical music. Under her leadership, the festival program has continued to expand. She has succeeded in reaching out to outstanding artists from America and the Czech Republic and inviting them to participate in the festival. Zdenka has built new important international contacts and developed them to further enhance the festival quality and profile.

Inka manages the Mladí Ladí Jazz festival. She is proud of the festival's jazzy but cross-genre line-up and its ability to bring quality music to a wide array of listeners. Inka considers music, regardless of genre, to be a moving force behind societal changes, and the best catalyzer of emotions and creativity. Besides Mladí Ladí Jazz, Inka also heads the World Roma Festival KHAMORO - her beloved project since her studies of Roma language at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University.

Gottfried is the managing director of ``Musikfabrik of Lower Austria``, a publicly supported program to promote cooperation between artists and music-promoters with a focus on contemporary music. He founded the “Lower Austrian Jazz Academy'' - a network of workshops with a focus on jazz and contemporary music. He is also a research assistant at Danube University Krems (Department for Art and Cultural Studies) and works as a freelance producer and choir conductor.

Italian agent and promoter Luigi Sidero, a veteran of the European jazz scene who has worked with some of the most refined jazz artists and festivals in Europe, assumed responsibility for MWI’s bookings in Central & Eastern Europe. With a strong experience in musical scene and a long career as jazz&modern pianist, he's seeking new challenges and responsibilities to progress career.