Young Jazz. Big Sound.
You can find more information about the Bundesjazzorchester and its current programmes in our 2025/26 season preview.
- Programme with Tom Gaebel for EURO 2024, conducted by Prof. Ansgar Striepens
90 minutes of joy, energy, team spirit, elegance, improvisation and precise playing awaited the audience in the year of the European Football Championship EURO 2024, which took place in Germany from 14 June to 14 July 2024. The Bujazzo was accompanied by Tom Gaebel, himself a member of the ensemble from 2000 to 2002. Under the direction of Ansgar Striepens, a mixture of Tom Gaebel's most popular songs, newly arranged football anthems and big band music for the football festival was played. - Building The Web, conducted by Hendrika Entzian
Together with the Bundesjazzorchester, Hendrika Entzian brought her own works and music by her most important companions to the stage. A programme that united joy and diversity: borrowings from pop, jazz and avant-garde combine seamlessly to weave a musical web that sometimes sounds floatingly free, sometimes densely branched. Hendrika Entzian's compositions transcend genre boundaries and are always in search of new encounters and musical adventures.
- Zukunftsmusik (results of the 4th composition competition), conducted by Prof. Niels Klein
For the fourth time, the Bundesjazzorchester has organised a composition competition. Young composers and arrangers up to the age of 30 were invited to submit their works for jazz orchestra and/or vocal ensemble. Both their own compositions and arrangements of other people's pieces were permitted. The jury, consisting of the Artistic Director of the Bundesjazzorchester Prof. Niels Klein and the composer, arranger and bassist Hendrika Entzian, honoured seven composers from around 60 submitted works: Prizewinners:in category 1 "Jazz orchestra" (in alphabetical order): Jorik Bergman, Pascal Klewer, Ole Sinell, Clara Vetter. Winners of category 2 "Vocal ensemble" (in alphabetical order): Erik Leuthäuser, Eva Swiderski, Lion Wegmann. - Awakening 2023, conductor: Nikki Iles
In 2023, the Bundesjazzorchester met the award-winning British pianist, composer and bandleader Nikki Iles for the first time. In addition to treasures from her personal music archive, Nikki Iles also presented new compositions that mark another chapter in her long and distinguished career in British jazz. Her sources of inspiration include women such as the American jazz pianist Geri Allen and the British social democrat Ellen Wilkinson, as well as the vast landscapes of her homeland and her experiences during the pandemic. The depth and emotional range of her compositions are intoxicating - an unmistakable creative voice of jazz. - A Tribute To The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, conducted by Marko Lackner
The ensemble centred around the American drummer Kenny Clarke and the Belgian pianist and arranger Francy Boland was formed in 1961 on the initiative of Pierluigi 'Gigi' Campi, who was born in Italy and lived in Cologne. He promoted and produced the Clarke-Boland Big Band, which set standards in Europe and beyond as an independent and unmistakable voice of jazz. More than 250 arrangements of handwritten original scores by the Clarke-Boland Big Band have been in the possession of the Bundesjazzorchester since 2018. The programme "A Tribute To The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band" presents selected titles from this valuable legacy, complemented by works for the BuJazzO vocal ensemble written by Darmon Meader and Pete Churchill.
Joe Zawinul - 90 Years Anniversary, Conductor: Prof. Ansgar Striepens
Bundesjazzorchester & Scott Kinsey Group feat. Scott Kinsey (keyboards),
Hadrien Feraud (bass), Gergo Borlai (drums), Arto Tuncboyaciyan (percussion), Meredith Salimbeni (vocals)
Artistic Director: Ansgar StriepensOn 7 July 2022, one of the best-known and most influential jazz musicians, the Viennese Joe Zawinul, would have turned 90. During his time with Cannonball Adderley, as co-leader of the band Weather Report and with his Zawinul Syndicate, Zawinul set musical standards that are still unrivalled today. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, the SCOTT KINSEY GROUP (Scott Kinsey, Hadrien Feraud, Gergo Borlai, Arto Tuncboyaciyan, Meredith Salimbeni) together with the Bundesjazzorchester under the direction of Ansgar Striepens celebrate the music of this great Austrian musician and composer. The programme follows on seamlessly from Zawinul's successful concerts with the WDR Big Band. In addition to Zawinul hits such as "Birdland" or "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", songs from the Weather Report and Syndicate repertoire will be presented. A tribute to one of the greats of music!
- I'll Look Around, conducted by Michael Gibbs
Michael Gibbs is one of a handful of big band composers and arrangers whose voice is recognised as unmistakable in jazz: He has written for Pat Metheny and John Scofield as well as for Uriah Heep, Whitney Houston and Peter Gabriel. In summer 2022, Michael Gibbs, in collaboration with the BuJazzO, will expand the work he began with the NDR Big Band on the Billie Holiday Songbook, which will also feature the BuJazzO vocal ensemble to particular advantage.
Klingende Utopien - #2021Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland | Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari, Director: Prof Niels Klein
With "Klingende Utopien - #2021JLID", the Bundesjazzorchester combines the jazz avant-garde of today with the Jewish film avant-garde of yesterday in an exciting multimedia mix of silent films, jazz orchestra and vocal ensemble. At the centre of the project is the film "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari" (1920). 100 years after its creation, the silent film offers many contemporary interpretations as one of the first horror films, with its expressionist design, its themes such as mental illness, crime thriller, criticism of militarism and authority, etc. In contrast to many comedies of the time, whose humour works poorly today, this film in six acts remains a classic to this day. The Bundesjazzorchester has commissioned the renowned Hollywood film composer Jeff Beal (known for "House of Cards", among others) to compose a new score for "Cabinet of Dr Caligari". The programme is complemented by five short animated films from the famous Berlin advertising agency Julius Pinschewer, which have also been set to new music.With this project, the Bundesjazzorchester honoured the groundbreaking achievements of Jewish filmmakers of the Weimar Republic (including screenwriter Carl Mayer, director Robert Wiene and advertising film pioneer Julius Pinschewer) in an exciting multimedia mix of silent films, jazz orchestra and vocal ensemble.
Alpenjazz, conducted by Matthias Schriefl
Under the direction of Matthias Schriefl, the BuJazzO will present a new programme in summer 2021 that gives the big band's creative soloists space to enrich the alpine jazz style with their own impulses. Intersections between Alpine folk music, jazz and contemporary grooves will be explored and lead to new highlights. Schriefl is particularly focussed on the freedom of the rhythm section. The BuJazzO's vocal ensemble will also receive special attention, making excursions into the world of 20s and 30s hits as well as exploring new yodelling techniques. And there will be no shortage of humour in this programme with titles such as "We want a clear view of the Mediterranean, the mountains must go!".Matthias Schriefl, born in 1981, grew up on the edge of the Alps in Maria Rain in the Allgäu. At the age of 15, he became the youngest member of the Bundesjazzorchester. From 2000 to 2005, he studied jazz trumpet in Cologne and Amsterdam. From 2008 to 2010, he toured the major concert halls of Europe with his band Shreefpunk as a "Rising Star" of the European Concert Hall Organisation. After that, he mainly experimented with alpine music. In 2012, he released the multi-award-winning album Six, Alps & Jazz with ACT in the "Young German Jazz" series. To this day, new CD recordings with various bands regularly follow, in which he, as a musician and composer, writes his pieces "tailor-made" for his respective fellow musicians.
- Dreams And Realities, conductor: Prof. Ansgar Striepens
The first sounding calling card of the new artistic director Ansgar Striepens, who succeeds Jiggs Whigham in his role from 2020. His works reflect his deep roots in his own European musical tradition. His sources of inspiration include Bach, Handel, Bartók and Hindemith. Striepens is fascinated by symmetries in all their forms and other phenomena from mathematics and the natural sciences. But his interest in psychology, philosophy, art and literature also flows into his music. Dreams and reality - an exciting journey into contemporary big band music that carries on the fire of tradition and is open to looking beyond borders.
- Forty Years Outside The Box, conducted by Django Bates
In the summer of 2019, the Bundesjazzorchester will meet the English jack-of-all-trades Django Bates for the first time. The multi-instrumentalist is known for his quirky big band music and highly virtuoso musical experiments. Bates has been composing for large ensembles since the early 1980s. His music deals with a wide variety of themes. Sometimes it is about the politics of Romania or South Africa, sometimes about foxes in the night and sometimes about the circus. His arrangements are inspired by the music of Charlie Parker, the Beatles and Beethoven. He has put together a programme especially for the Bundesjazzorchester consisting of key elements from his unconventional forty-year career. - A Tribute To The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, conducted by Jiggs Whigham
The ensemble centred around the American drummer Kenny Clarke and the Belgian pianist and arranger Francy Boland was formed in 1961 on the initiative of Pierluigi "Gigi" Campi, who was born in Italy and lived in Cologne. He promoted and produced the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, which for years set standards in Europe and beyond as an independent and unmistakable voice of jazz. Jiggs Whigham will perform a selection of special titles, complemented by exclusive arrangements for the BuJazzO vocal ensemble.
Sounding utopias - 100 years of Bauhaus, conductor: Prof. Niels Klein
In 2019, Germany is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Bauhaus as one of the most important cultural achievements of the 20th century with partners all over the world. As Germany's cultural ambassador, the Bundesjazzorchester will also be sending out a national and international signal about the contemporary relevance of this movement one hundred years after Bauhaus was founded. Together with the Eastman School of Music (USA) and the archives of the George Eastman Museum Rochester (USA), eight exemplary films by Bauhaus protagonists or with a Bauhaus connection from the 1920s and 1930s were selected, on the basis of which current compositions by renowned jazz composers were created:Ansgar Striepens: "Excelsior" (Walter Ruttmann)
Ansgar Striepens: "Das Ornament des verliebten Herzens" (Lotte Reiniger)
Ansgar Striepens: "Das Geheimnis der Marquise" (Lotte Reiniger)
Christopher Dell: "Lichtspiel" (László Moholy-Nagy)
Gebhard Ullmann: "Berliner Stillleben" (László Moholy-Nagy)
Bill Dobbins: "Marseille Vieux Port" (László Moholy-Nagy)
Julia Hülsmann: "Großstadt-Zigeuner" (László Moholy-Nagy)
Niels Klein: "Lobster" (László Moholy-Nagy)The programme is complemented by the composition "White City" by Oliver Schneller, which focuses on the themes of "architecture" and "migration", with projected images of the so-called "White City" in Tel Aviv entering into dialogue with musical compositions. The composition for big band and video projection consists of independent but sequentially coordinated "sound modules", each of which refers to specific image sequences that are projected in coordination with the music.
Reinhild Steingröver has been engaged as the curator of this project. She is Professor of German Studies at the Eastman School of Music. She is also Professor of Film Studies at the University of Rochester. Her research focuses on contemporary German film and literary studies, particularly the intersection of art and politics and the role of the artist in society."
- Brazil Universo - Bujazzo Plays The Music Of Hermeto Pascoal, conducted by Prof. Steffen Schorn
The Brazilian Hermeto Pascoal is one of his country's best-known multi-instrumentalists and avant-garde musicians. Steffen Schorn has brought along a selection of his favourite pieces from his extensive repertoire of almost 10,000 compositions and arranged them for big band, as well as a selection of his own compositions inspired by his travels to South America: A firework of complex and sensual rhythms, colourful harmonies and almost endless melodic arcs that draw deeply from the roots of Brazilian music.