Programmes

Germany’s National Youth Jazz Orchestra, the Bundesjazzorchester, has since 2007 offered a new programme after each biannual rehearsal period. Here you can find all of our programmes since 2012, including those which are soon to be produced.

Aus der Tiefe des Raumes
Under the direction of Ansgar Striepens, a program for the UEFA EURO 2024, which will take place in Germany from 14 June to 14 July 2024, will be performed. Several concerts are planned with compositions and arrangements to match the soccer theme at venues across Germany.

Rotate – BuJazzO plays the music of Hendrika Entzian

In summer 2024, bassist, composer and arranger Hendrika Entzian will be guest conductor of the Bundesjazzorchester. She will be presenting her program "Rotate", which she has put together especially for the BuJazzO.ex Air King watches

Tribute To The Kenny Clarke - Francy Boland Big Band II

The ensemble around the American drummer Kenny Clarke and the Belgian pianist and arranger Francy Boland has been regarded for years as an independent and distinctive voice of jazz in Europe and beyond. More than 240 arrangements of handwritten original scores by the band have been in the possession of the BuJazzO since 2018. In 2019, a first musical focus was dedicated to this treasure. In 2023, a further selection from this invaluable fund will be heard.Replica Rolex Air King watches

Awakening 2023

The Bundesjazzorchester meets award-winning British pianist, composer and bandleader Nikki Iles for the first time in 2023. After her successful collaboration with the UMO Jazz Orchestra in Helsinki as well as the hr-Bigband and the NDR Bigband, she returns to Germany in the summer with the programme "Awakening 2023", which was put together especially for the BuJazzO. More

Directed by: Nikki Iles

Music Of Future

The results of the 4th BuJazzO composition competition will be performed under the direction of Niels Klein. Young composers and arrangers up to the age of 30 were invited to submit works for jazz orchestra and/or vocal ensemble. Both their own compositions and arrangements of pieces by others were permitted. Different facets and styles of contemporary jazz can be heard in this programme.

Directed by: Niels Klein

Klingende Utopien – #2021JLID

With "Sounding Utopias – #2021Jewish Life in Germany", the Bundesjazzorchester links 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. Read more.

Directed by: Niels Klein

Dreams And Realities

This programme represents the first musical calling card of the new musical director, Ansgar Striepens, who took on the role as Jiggs Whigham’s successor in 2020. His works demonstrate his deep roots in the European musical tradition. Bach, Händel, Bartók, and Hindemith, amongst others, serve as his sources of inspiration. Striepens is fascinated by symmetry in all its forms, as well as other phenomena in mathematics and natural sciences. Furthermore, his interests in psychology, philosophy, visual art, and literature find their way into his music. Dreams and Realities – an exciting journey through the world of contemporary big band music that bears the torch of tradition and nevertheless remains open to looking beyond established boundaries.

Directed by: Ansgar Striepens

Forty Years Outside The Box

In the summer of 2019, the Bundesjazzorchester met and worked for the first time with the versatile English musician Django Bates. The multi-instrumentalist is known for his quirky big band music and highly virtuosic musical experiments. He has been writing for large ensembles since the early 1980s. His music addresses a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from Romanian or South African politics, to foxes in the night, to the circus. His arrangements are inspired from such diverse sources as Charlie Parker, The Beatles, and Beethoven. He put together this programme specifically for the Federal Youth Jazz Orchestra, drawing upon key moments from his unconventional forty year career.

Directed by: Django Bates

A Tribute To The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band

In 1961, a big band was formed around the American drummer Kenny Clark and the Belgian pianist and arranger Francy Boland. The initiator and producer of this ensemble, which for years set the standard in Europe and developed its own unmistakable voice in jazz history, was the Italian Pierluigi “Gigi” Campi, who lived in Cologne. The programme is composed of exceptional pieces selected by Jiggs Whigham, with additional vocal arrangements having been written exclusively for the BuJazzO Vocal Ensemble.

Directed by: Jiggs Whigham

Sound Utopias - The 100th Anniversary of Bauhaus

Combining the jazz avant garde of today with the Bauhaus avant garde of yesteryear, this multimedia concert programme combines selected Bauhaus films with music for big band and vocal ensemble. In cooperation with the Eastman School of Music (USA) and the George Eastman Museum of Rochester’s Archives (USA), eight exemplary films from legendary Bauhaus figures or with a Bauhaus connection from the 20s and 30s were selected. A number of renowned jazz composers were then commissioned to write new works on the basis of the selected films.

Directed by: Niels Klein

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