About the festival
Founded in 1964 the Berlin Jazz Festival is one of the longest running European festivals of international renown. Known as Berliner Jazztage until 1980 it was directed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt (1964-72), George Gruntz (1973-94), Albert Mangelsdorff (1995-2000), Nils Landgren (2001, 2008-11), John Corbett (2002), Peter Schulze (2003-07) and Bert Nogik (2012-14) and will be curated from 2015 by the British music publicist Richard Williams.

Whereas famous US-jazz celebrities set the tone during the first decades, the Berlin Jazz Festival increasingly has presented artists from all around the globe, with an increasing emphasis on contemporary European jazz.

Presently residing at Haus der Berliner Festspiele, a 1000-seater theatre run by the festival’s parent company Berliner Festspiele, plus a couple of satellite venues, the festival mostly draws capacity audiences, with media partners ARD (public)radio(system) and Deutschlandradio documenting the musical scope by simulcasts and live-recordings.