Kraków Jazz Week 2025:
This year's installment of Krakow Jazz Week traditionally combines two autonomous components. The brand, which is gaining more and more recognition in the country and around the world, has been bringing together for several years initiatives that are insanely important for the community centered around improvised music. The first of these, Seifert Jazz Days, refers to the great tradition, history and legacy left behind by the brilliant Krakow violinist, saxophonist and composer Zbigniew Seifert, while inspiring musicians and audiences alike with his bold vision of the future. The second is the Jazz Juniors festival, an event with nearly half a century of tradition, which for decades has been an important landmark and a driving force behind the careers of many leading musicians on the jazz scene. In order for the audience to absorb the abundance of events more clearly and with greater concentration, during this year's edition the organizers decided to separate the two segments of the Cracow Jazz Week and proposed a short break of several days between the Seifert Jazz Days and the competition and the Jazz Juniors festival, just in time to take a breath and tame the emotions, which will certainly not be lacking, especially since each part of this year's event will be crowned with an impressive finale.
SEIFERT JAZZ DAYS 26-28.09.2025
Seifert Jazz Days has been held for several years now, in a two-year alternating cycle with the international Seifert Competition for violin. Both events were established to commemorate and popularize the figure and achievements of one of the most outstanding jazz violinists in history, and as a continuation of his visionary path. These cycles perfectly fit into the cultural landscape of Krakow - the city with which Seifert was associated for an excellent part of his all too short and prematurely ended life. As during previous editions, this year's third installment of the event will honor Seifert in a special way. Through the selection of performers, the organizers also indicate in which places on the contemporary scene the work of the Krakow violinist resonates, echoes and remains an inexhaustible inspiration, even if it is not immediately audible and is sometimes given not quite directly.
26.09.2025 Club Hevre, 18 Meiselsa St. hrs. 19.00
Deux Lynx
27.09.2025, Club Hevre, 18 Meiselsa St. hrs. 19.00
ńoko
28.09.2025, Cracow Philharmonic, 1 Zwierzyniecka St. hrs. 19.00
Reijseger & Seifert | Synergy Spirit
The audience will be introduced to this year's Seifert Jazz Days with a performance by artists who, despite their young age, already count their camaraderie in decades. Miłosz Berdzik and Adam Jędrysik are classmates from elementary school, and the history of their cooperation on artistic grounds goes back a decade. Both musicians have to their credit collaborations with the country's leading artists on the jazz and improvised music scene, and as a duo they offer an original fusion of improvisation, electronics and hip-hop.
Pulsating with rhythm, meandering between genres and styles, the music, based on processed sounds of guitar and drums, often verges on pastiche, free play with conventions and manners - but it makes a serious impression.
composition:
Miłosz Berdzik - drums
Adam Jędrysik - guitar, electronics
The second evening of the event is, another in recent years, an excellent musical proposal from the Tri-City. The band is made up of artists who are well known both from other line-ups and solo activities, in this particular personnel combination proposing sounds that have not yet found development within the framework of other projects.
The dark fusion of jazz, electronics and psychedelic offshoots of rock music is essentially a refreshing of the idea of fusion music and jazz-rock, but served with power and in such an evocative way that it is difficult to resist the power of the quartet's work. If one associates darkjazz with bands like Bohren & der Club of Gore then it is actually a valid association, as long as one imagines the German group playing on steroids.
Composition:
Dawid Lipka - trumpet
Michał Jan Ciesielski - saxophone / synthesizers
Maciej Sadowski - double bass / moog
Tomasz Koper - drums
The final evening of the Seifert Jazz Days will bring music lovers to the space of the Krakow Philharmonic Hall for the first time in the event's history. Although a new venue for the event, a long-time friend and committed fan of initiatives dedicated to Zbigniew Seifert - the eminent Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger - will appear on stage. The artist, who regularly appears in Krakow to celebrate the achievements of the brilliant violinist in various forms, this time will offer the festival audience a program in the interpretation of a sizable performing apparatus, although paradoxically also with a distinct chamber character. For the audience will be confronted by a duo framed by the voices of choristers.
The idea for the concert was born out of Ernst Reijseger's fascination with Seifert's work. The cellist found points of commonality between his own compositions (older and premiere) and works created by the Krakow violinist. This is where the eponymous spirit of synergy appeared to permeate the music. The universal message and timeless eloquence are absolutely sufficient reasons to be at the Krakow Philharmonic this evening.
Composition:
Ernst Reijseger - cello
Harmen Fraanje - piano
Polish Radio Luslawice Choir
Wolfgang Kläsener - conductor
JAZZ JUNIORS 02-05.10.2025
Although an essential and integral part of the Jazz Juniors festival is the competition for young jazz students, the event, which is approaching its half-century of existence, has had much more to offer listeners for many years. For the second year in a row, the outstanding Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer will serve as the festival's artistic director and resident artist. An artist whose silhouette needs no detailed introduction to music fans. Suffice it to recall that Molvaer is responsible for one of the most important breakthroughs in improvised music. It was he who led the fusion of jazz and electronic club music in the late 1990s, the echoes of which are present in the work of subsequent generations, even nearly 30 years after the release of the monumental album "Khmer." In his dual role as artistic director and resident artist, in keeping with his own artistic path, the Norwegian trumpeter focuses on diversity, emphasizing the presence of women in the improvised music scene and offbeat combinations between genres.
02.10.2025, Cricoteka, 2-4 Nadwiślańska St.
hrs. 19.00
JAZZ JUNIORS COMPETITION free entry
For nearly half a century, the Cracow competition for young jazz musicians has been the ticket to a new stage of their careers for many of them. It was during this event that the general public became acquainted with groups such as Tie Break, Walk Away and Love. Of course, the list of band names and names of musicians who have passed through the Jazz Juniors competition stage could be multiplied endlessly, but regardless of the number of participants, changing history and various turbulences, quality is invariably associated with the Cracow event. And it's not just about the quality of performance, because that, during an event of such tradition and stature, is obvious.
The quality of the annual competition manifests itself primarily in the spirit in which the event is held. Rivalry between participants - if there is any, it is treated by everyone with due respect. Here there are no losers, there are only participants who, after the final auditions, are given a range of opportunities to take advantage of - from making new friends and strengthening the jazz community, to the possibility of performing on European stages. Each of these options carries great value, and this is the main goal of the Jazz Juniors organizers.
03.10.2025, Cricoteka, 2-4 Nadwiślańska St. hrs. 19.00
Kasia Pietrzko Trio
04.10.2025, Cricoteka, 2-4 Nadwiślańska St. hrs. 19.00
Piotr Damasiewicz / Dominik Wania
05.10.2025, Krakow Philharmonic, 1 Zwierzyniecka St. hrs. 19.00
Nils Petter Molvaer, Soheil Shayesteh, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Paulina Porszke
The first evening of the Jazz Juniors festival will open with a concert by Kasia Pietrzko's trio. Just a few years ago she was called one of the most promising artists on the Polish jazz scene. Her potential was recognized by Tomasz Stanko, alongside whom she performed with the trio during the last official concert before the artist's death. Persistent and consistently taking successive steps on the artistic path, she aroused enormous and well-deserved interest in each subsequent album. Her playing, but also her thinking about music and the band as a whole have been mature and complete for years, which only makes her more credible as an artist and leader.
Kasia Pietrzko will surely go down in the history of Polish music for one more reason. She is the first woman instrumentalist to release an album in the Polish Jazz series, and so, somewhat by the way, she has become a symbol of changes for the better in thinking about the shape of the jazz scene.
lineup:
Kasia Pietrzko - piano
Andrzej Święs - double bass
Piotr Budniak - drums
Nothing Personal
The concert by the female trio from Norway will provide an excellent contrast to the first part of the evening. The sound collage offered by the band has as much in common with improvisation as with pop songs. A riot of melodies, colors, sounds and ideas neatly encapsulated in a few minutes of songs. The safest thing would be to write that they are pleasing to the ear, only that they are certainly not for every ear, since the Norwegian press has written about the band as "arsonists of the musical landscape."
Avant-garde inspirations harnessed in the service of pop music - this certainly augurs a remarkable musical experience. Perhaps, as with the output of many other artists who transcend the patterns, Nothing Personal's music is only a harbinger of things to come. It's worth seeing for yourself live.
composition:
Solveig Wang
Thea Wang
Dorothea Økland
Their collaboration dates back to their days as students at the Music Academy in Katowice. It was then that the Damasiewicz-led group Power of The Horns was formed. Years later, they met to interpret Artur Olender's songs as a duo. Although the starting material is composed of songs very far from the jazz idiom, the musical sensibilities of the trumpeter and pianist took these compositions into a whole new realm. The result, in the form of the album "The Way, The Truth, The Life," was moving and dazzling - both in its mastery of performance and its encapsulated emotionality in an intimate formula.
This time the music of Artur Olender will resound live, thus reaching the sensitivity of the listeners even more strongly. Especially since already at the basis of the project lies the idea that this is music inviting to travel deep into the sphere of spirituality and to meditate on fundamental matters.
Composition:
Piotr Damasiewicz - trumpet
Dominik Wania - piano
Erland Dahlen
A drummer in a solo program - sounds risky? Not if we are dealing with one of the most prominent instrumentalists of the European jazz and jazz-oriented scene, and the artist already has several albums realized in this way. For Dahlen, what matters above all is music, and he is able to extract music from everything. And if an object for music-making has not yet been invented - what easier way? It should be created.
Unstoppable in his search for new solutions and hardly predictable in terms of sound creation, which makes him extremely interesting as an author and performer. He will probably surprise listeners more than once, but he will certainly do it during his performance at the Jazz Juniors festival.
composition:
Erland Dahlen
Artistic director and Jazz Juniors Festival artist-in-residence Nils Petter Molvaer has deservedly held an important place in the world of improvised music for several decades. His fusion of club electronica and jazz has become his trademark, but he has never stopped at one point, constantly searching for new and intriguing paths of artistic development.
One of the strategies he has adopted in this search is to bet on encounters with unconventional artists. This certainly includes Soheil Shayesteh, an Amsterdam-based audiovisual artist and violinist whose interests also include Persian kamancha playing, composition, and electronic and electroacoustic music. Versatile, reaching into areas that few reach, he seems to be Molvaer's ideal stage companion.
It is his composition that will be heard at the finale of the 49th Jazz Juniors festival, and the worlds of Middle Eastern music, jazz, electronics and orchestral momentum will mingle on the stage of the Krakow Philharmonic. The effect of such a fusion is difficult to imagine, but certainly worth spending an evening in the concert hall on Zwierzyniecka Street.
composition:
Nils Petter Molvaer - trumpet, electronics
Soheil Shayesteh - violin, kamancha, electronics
Sinfonietta Cracovia - conductor Paulina Porszke
05.10.2025, Club Hevre, 18 Meiselsa St.
hrs. 22.00
Kravchenko & Clees
The epilogue and final chord of the 49th edition of the Jazz Junior festival will be the nightly performance of the duo that received the Grand Prix of the competition for young musicians during the previous edition of the event. During last year's still-competitive-and therefore insanely short-concert, the festival audience gave signs of great emotion. This time, the Ukrainian-Luxemburg ensemble will present a full-scale concert, the program of which is based on material from this year's debut album of the band, produced in close cooperation with Berlin-based saxophonist Wanja Slavin.
In the duo's performance, extremely economical means of expression - just vibraphone and voice, are transformed into a multidimensional tool of artistic creation. Courage in the search for sound, imagination and apparent limitations, which for Kateryna and Arthur become assets. This concert is not to be missed.
composition:
Kateryna Kravchenko - singing
Arthur Clees - vibraphone
Zbigniew Seifert Foundation
The Zbigniew Seifert Foundation was established out of the need to nurture the memory of one of Poland's most outstanding jazz artists and the desire to inspire the next generation of artists. Its mission is not only to popularize the achievements of Zbigniew Seifert, but also to support the development of improvised music and artistic exploration at the intersection of various genres. The Foundation works at the intersection of culture, education and art - initiating projects, organizing events and promoting creativity that crosses borders and builds understanding between people.
Our key businesses:
International jazz competition aimed at artists playing improvised music on violin, viola and cello. It has been organized every two years since 2014. More than 200 musicians from 18 countries have entered the competition. It is the only such event in the world.
The festival is organized every two years, in alternate years to the Seifert Competition. The event presents premiere projects inspired by Seifert's music or showcases instrumentalists playing improvised music on stringed instruments.
An umbrella project presenting Polish musicians on the international jazz scene implemented from 2021. It is also a promotion of Zbigniew Seifert. Performers include Marcin Wasilewski and Joe Lovano, Leszek Możdżer, Adam Pierończyk and Maciej Obara.
Archive of jazz magazines like Jazz Forum or Jazz, programs of jazz festivals like Jazz Jamboree or Zlota Tarka. The archive has Jazz Forum available in three language versions: Polish, English, German. The archive contains more than 40,000 pages.
The archive contains information about the Polish jazz violin genius, including photos, sheet music, memorabilia from the archives of Agnieszka Seifert, his wife, and Malgorzata Seifert, his sister. The archive contains interesting facts about the artist's life, statements of various people about him.
The Foundation has released six CD albums including archival albums: Zbigniew Seifert's Solo Violin, and Live in Solothurn, a previously unpublished recording. It also published sheet music and a biographical book is the first book about a Polish jazzman published in Polish and English.
Foundation in numbers:
6
edition of the competition
Seifert Competition is the world's only competition dedicated to violin, viola and cello in improvised music
3
editions of the festival
Seifert Jazz Days is a unique festival inspired by the music of Zbigniew Seifert
200
applications
The Seifert Competition received more than 200 entries from artists in 28 countries - from Brazil to Japan.
20
foreign concerts
as part of Seifert Night, we organized more than 20 concerts by Polish jazzmen
6
albums released
Seifert Records has released six albums including archives: Solo Violin and Live in Solothurn
40000
digitized pages
The PolishJazzArch archive contains more than 40,000 pages of magazines, festival programs, periodicals
News:
"Zbyszek was for me a model of perseverance in pursuit of a set goal and a model of honesty in music. Whatever he played - it was always honest. His music was damn inspiring. For me, a percussionist, it was especially important the moment he started a solo, new forces ascended in me, as it were. He didn't explain much before the concert, but he played so evocatively that you had to follow him..."
Janusz Stefanski
Seifert Competition Winners:
Anais Drago 2024
Kacper Malisz 2022
Matthew Smoczynski 2016
Mario Forte 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEF0hHgp4NA&t=927s
