Skopje, 16 October 2023 (MIA) — Eleven bands from the USA, Europe, Brazil and North Macedonia will perform at the 42nd Skopje Jazz Festival, which will be held at the National Opera and Ballet and at MKC from Oct. 19 through 22.

According to organizers, the festival programming will offer concerts by some of the greatest names in contemporary jazz today.

This year's festival will open on Thursday evening with a premiere performance of "After the Wildfire," composed for this concert by Norwegian jazz musicians Arve Henriksen and Jan Bang. They will perform as soloists together with percussionist Ingar Zach. Dzhijan Emin will conduct the Fame's Institute Orchestra featuring several Macedonian kaval players and singers. A performance by Chicago composer and multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay will follow.

On Friday evening, Italian saxophonist Roberto Ottaviano will give a concert with his Eternal Love band. Contemporary improvisers Sylvie Courvoisier on piano and Mary Halvorson on guitar will perform next. The last band performing will be Cobalt Code Unit consisting on Dragan Teodosiev on drums, Simeon Angelovski on bass guitar, synthesizer, and harmonica, Stefan Miladinov on guitar, and Blagojche Tomevski on clarinet.

On Saturday evening, American jazz pianist Jason Moran will give a solo recital. Jazz vibraphonist Joel Ross will perform with his Good Vibes quartet. And Italian clarinetist Zoe Pia and Swedish reed player Mats Gustafsson's tandem Rite will give a concert at midnight.

On Sunday evening, the festival will present a performance by the Zlatko Kaučič/Barry Guy/Agustí Fernández trio. Next, Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra will give a concert. Brazilian band Bixiga 70 will close the festival with a performance promoting their just released album "Vapor" (Glitterbeat Records).

The 42nd Skopje Jazz Festival will also award its traditional Best Young Jazz Musician Prize, run a "Jazz for Kids" children's workshop, and put the spotlight on the plight of refugees through a "Jazz For Solidarity With Refugees" event in cooperation with UNHCR. mr/