IMPORTANT: The winners will be invited to Festival da Jazz in the week from July 16 to 22, 2023. These dates have to be kept free! The jury’s decision will be announced in early May. There will be no correspondence regarding the decision, the legal process is excluded.
Application
And that’s how it works: Interested bands can apply for the #JazzLab via online form. Entry deadline is March 31, 2023. A jury of national and international experts will select two winning acts from all submissions.
Band of jazz students and/or jazz school graduates
Bands whose members are at the beginning of their careers and no older than 30 on average
National and international bands from the wide genre of jazz
General Application Terms
The competition for the New Generation #JazzLab is aimed at:
Whoever is invited to the Festival da Jazz is a winner already. The days in St. Moritz will put the focus on enjoying music. The two winning acts will be supported by renowned mentors. In rehearsal venues of the festival, the young talents can work, practice and arrange their music intensively for five days. The perfect finale will be a concert at the legendary Dracula Club.
And because the music business is indeed a business, the bands will also get support in this field on their way to a professional career. Every festival is a kind of organic network where curious and open-minded musicians can benefit. What is important for festivals when booking an act? When does it pay to be persistent and when can it be counterproductive? How should an artist or band present themselves online and offline? From sound technician, to band managers, festival organizers to external managers from the music business – there is a lot of knowledge gathered that can be tapped into.
Free entrance to festival concerts
festival
with international agencies and managers
Networking
and prize money of CHF 5,000.–
award
Professional recording of the concert
Video
at the legendary Dracula Club
Concert
incl. room and board with internationally renowned and experienced mentors and hosts at the Festival da Jazz
5-Day masterclass
Two selected bands will be invited to the Festival da Jazz in St. Moritz in summer 2023 and can benefit from an attractive sponsorship and support package:
The Prize
For many young artists, entering the music business is riddled with obstacles. Besides talent and luck, it needs an enormous amount of energy, perseverance, persistence, and time, to get the proverbial foot in the door. The New Generation #JazzLab wants to make this step a bit easier for motivated young talents.
The Idea
Mentors 2023
At the centre of the New Generation #JazzLab is the collaboration of the winning acts with various jazz greats. These “mentors” are internationally renowned professionals with extensive teaching background who support the young talents in many ways. The Festival da Jazz deliberately chooses artists who distinguish themselves by their multifaceted work and curiosity:
Robin McKelle // US Jazz-Singer
Peewee Windmüller // Editor-in-chief JAZZ’N’MORE magazine
Lee Ritenour // Grammy-Award Guitarist, Composer/Producer
Christian Jott Jenny // Singer & Founder Festival da Jazz
Carolina Müller-Möhl // Philanthrope & Investor
Roger Rüegger // New Generation #JazzLab
Melissa Aldana // Chilean Jazz-Saxophonist
Melina Roshard // PR/Media Expert
Jury
The jury brings together different exponents from the world of jazz, and the music and promotion business. The Festival da Jazz makes a point of ensuring that the members are put together from a broad spectrum, featuring varied opinions:
Camila Meza
vocals/guitar, Chile
Camila Meza, equally prized as a vocalist, guitarist and composer, has brought a sound full of warmth, intricacy and rhythmic clarity to the New York jazz scene ever since her arrival from Santiago, Chile in 2009. Inspired by jazz, South American music and American popular song of many eras and genres, she has uplifted audiences worldwide with her rare combination of talents: assured and beautiful singing; highly advanced guitar (both self accompaniment and blistering solo work); and vividly colorful, melodic songwriting that reveals complex layers with every listen. In 2022 she was awarded #1 Female Rising Star Vocalist by the prestigious international magazine Downbeat.
Aaron Goldberg
piano, USA
“For over 20 years, pianist Aaron Goldberg has set himself apart as one of the most scintillating performers in jazz,” hails JazzTimes. Goldberg is widely heralded as one of the art form’s most compelling pianists, both leading his own trio and collaborating with many of the Jazz titans. Simultaneously swinging and embracing risk, his stylistically fluid, singular voice reveals that jazz is a tradition of innovation. He performed in bands led by a cross-generational array of icons including Betty Carter, Al Foster, Ron Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Mark Turner, Christian McBride, Tom Harrell, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Joe Lovano, Peter Bernstein, Ravi Coltrane, Carl Allen, Madeleine Peyroux, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Guillermo Klein.
Mattias Svensson
bass, Sweden
Svensson, known for his tasteful, highly swinging bass lines and melodic soloing, studied at the Malmö College of Music, Sweden and at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York where his teachers included Gary Peacock, Eddie Gomez, and Reggie Workman. He’s been touring with both The Jan Lundgren Trio and The Viktoria Tolstoy Group as a steady band member for years. Additionally he played/recorded with jazz great such as Johnny Griffin, Toots Thielemans, Clark Terry, Lee Konitz, Benny Golson, Ernie Watts, Randy Brecker, James Moody, Billy Harper, Eric Alexander, Joey Alexander, Bill Mays, Joe LaBarbera, Pat LaBarbera, Victor Lewis, John Guerin, Alvin Queen, Phillip Wilson and Rashied Ali.
Gregory Hutchinson
drums, USA
Jazz Magazine describes him as “the drummer of his generation” and indeed, Gregory Hutchinson is one of the most highly respected musicians of our time. His mastery of timing and expression of rhythms is at the core of his personal style. He is a musician’s drummer, soundly rooted in the jazz tradition he is able to approach all styles of music with supreme accuracy and imagination, decorating compositions with his natural feel and mind blowing innovation. Over the past 30 years Greg has been providing outstanding drumming for Red Rodney, Betty Carter, Ray Brown, Dianne Reeves, Wynton Marsalis, John Scofield, Roy Hargrove, Branford Marsalis, Charles Lloyd, Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Maria Schneider and many, many more.
