This practice-based contribution explores two approaches to jazz mediation linked to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg: the Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy and the Elbphilharmonie Education Seminar as part of the Dr. Langner Jazz Master programme at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama. Both initiatives connect artistic excellence with social and educational engagement, positioning jazz not merely as a musical genre but as a social practice grounded in improvisation and dialogue. The Jazz Academy creates a temporary collective space where emerging professional jazz musicians work intensively with renowned mentors to develop the participants’ original compositions and perform them in a public concert. In the Education Seminar, jazz students design and implement mediation workshops for diverse target groups, exploring jazz as a communicative and participatory art form. In summary, the text demonstrates how institutional engagement with formats that integrate artistic production and music mediation can support emerging jazz musicians in building sustainable careers.
Ce “billet du terrain” explore deux approches de la médiation du jazz liées à l'Elbphilharmonie de Hambourg : l'Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy et l'Elbphilharmonie Education Seminar donnés dans le cadre du programme Dr. Langner Jazz Master de l'Université de musique et d'art dramatique de Hambourg. Ces deux initiatives associent l'excellence artistique à l'engagement social et éducatif, positionnant le jazz non seulement comme un genre musical, mais aussi comme une pratique sociale fondée sur l'improvisation et le dialogue. La Jazz Academy crée un espace collectif temporaire où des musicien.nes de jazz professionnel.les emergent.es travaillent intensivement avec des mentor.es de renom afin de développer les compositions originales des participant.es et de les interpréter lors d'un concert public. Dans le cadre de l’Education Séminar, les étudiant.es en jazz conçoivent et mettent en œuvre des ateliers de médiation de la musique destinés à divers publics cibles, explorant le jazz comme une forme d'art communicative et participative. Ensemble, ces deux cas illustrent comment la médiation du jazz peut relier la production artistique et la médiation de la musique, et comment l'engagement institutionnel en faveur de tels programmes peut aider les musicien.nes de jazz emergent.es à développer une carrière durable.
Der Praxisbeitrag stellt zwei Ansätze der Jazzvermittlung vor, die an der Elbphilharmonie Hamburg durchgeführt werden: die Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy und das Elbphilharmonie Education Seminar im Rahmen des Dr. Langner Jazzmasters an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. Beide Formate verbinden künstlerische Exzellenz mit gesellschaftlichem und pädagogischem Engagement und verstehen Jazz nicht nur als Musikstil, sondern als soziale Praxis, die auf Improvisation und Dialog beruht. Die Jazz Academy schafft temporär einen kollektiven Raum, in dem junge Jazzmusiker_innen gemeinsam mit renommierten Mentor_innen an ihren eigenen Kompositionen arbeiten und in einem öffentlichen Konzert präsentieren. Im Education Seminar entwerfen und erproben Masterstudierende Vermittlungsworkshops für unterschiedliche Zielgruppen und erkunden Jazz als kommunikative und partizipative Kunstform. Beide Programme zeigen, wie Jazzvermittlung künstlerische Produktion und Musikvermittlung miteinander verbinden kann und wie ein institutionelles Bekenntnis zu einem solchen Programm junge Jazzmusiker_innen in ihrer künstlerischen und beruflichen Karriere unterstützen kann.
music mediation, jazz, higher education, Elbphilharmonie, artistic collaboration
Musical practice in jazz shares a number of important characteristics with music mediation: improvisation as social interaction (Monson 1996), collective working methods, fluid roles within ensembles and a historically evolved transcultural context (DeVeaux 1991). However, while music mediation formats have long been an integral part of institutional practice in classical music, those focused on jazz are still at a relatively early stage of development and there is scope for an increase in practice-led academic discourse in the field (Chaker and Petri-Preis 2022).
The two following articles provide observations and reflections on significant recent additions to the Elbphilharmonie music mediation programme – each involves tertiary jazz and improvisation students and/or those at the early stages of careers in music. The Jazz Academy is a week-long intensive opportunity for creative collaboration which culminates in a public performance. The Elbphilharmonie Education Seminar, on the other hand, is a seminar-based partnership between the Elbphilharmonie Education Department and the Hamburg University of Music and Drama. In the seminar programme, Dr. Langner Jazz Master students are introduced to the broader field of music mediation to reflect on its aims, context and target audience. After a conception phase, the programme culminates in the students presenting the various workshop models that they have developed.
In reporting on the Jazz Academy and seminar programme, we aim to show the overlap and similarities between the social and collaborative aspects of music making in the contemporary jazz ensemble and current practices and discourses in music mediation. Further, giving institutional backing to these programmes emphasises not only the importance of jazz mediation as artistically and socially relevant, but acknowledges that players embarking on careers in jazz performance will also likely be teaching and passing on knowledge in ways that go beyond instrumental technique and harmonic theory. Indeed, during the Jazz Academy too, time is devoted to discussing and trying out different methods of sharing musical insights and reaching decisions within a group – a deliberate move beyond the top-down class or lecture model.
Benjamin Holzapfel, Charles MacInnes
The idea for the Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy developed from a collaboration with pianist Yaron Herman. As part of the 2016 The Art of Music Education symposium organised by the Elbphilharmonie and the Körber Foundation, Herman gave a keynote on the role of improvisation in music mediation. Following this, the Elbphilharmonie invited Herman to curate the Reflektor music festival. One part of this comprised a jazz camp organised by the Elbphilharmonie Education Department together with Herman, percussionist Ziv Ravitz and local musicians and choreographers. During the camp, young people – regardless of previous training or instrument – developed music and dance improvisations as part of a large group. The aim was to encourage collective listening and reactions by experiencing musical processes created in the moment.
The positive experiences arising from this event led to the development of the Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy. First organised in 2021, it has taken place every two years since. Aimed at aspiring professional jazz musicians, it focuses on creating a temporary space for creative collaboration and mutual inspiration, along with professional artistic exchange. The young jazz musicians put their own compositions into practice in a daily mentorship programme made up of rehearsals, coaching sessions, discussion and tutorials. In the evenings, the Academy participants have the opportunity to continue working independently in the venue’s studio spaces and on whatever material they choose. Accommodation and meals are provided and participation is free of charge, with the exception of travel expenses.
The rehearsals, panel discussions, classes and coaching sessions form the basic structural framework. However, the detailed schedule is developed in close dialogue between the artistic director, the project team and the mentors. The artistic director and mentors are internationally recognised jazz practitioners1 and, in conjunction with feedback from previous participants, they shape the content to ensure it has artistic impetus. The challenge lies in creating a format that is both flexible and rigorous; with sufficient scope for collaborative ensemble work, as well as the development of a coherent final concert programme.
In contrast to the traditional educational model of uniformly imparting knowledge by covering standard repertoire and basic instrumental training, the Academy sets out to blend important aspects of both an artistic training programme and a music mediation programme. It seeks to give participants the opportunity to enhance their existing musical skills by placing social and collaborative decision-making in the foreground, backed up by professional educational guidance and expertise.
Participants are selected via a multi-stage process, following an international call for applications. Submissions include audio and video material with original compositions and arrangements, which are reviewed and assessed by a professional jury. The assessment criteria include identifying proficiency and stylistic flexibility, artistic independence and personality, evidence of communication skills within the ensemble, as well as an ability to articulate musical ideas both compositionally and as a performer. The selection panel prioritises diversity and inclusion in terms of gender, musical background, and socio-economic circumstances. However, a structural gap remains, as evidenced by a lack of BIPOC applications and underrepresentation in other marginalised groups, including people with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ musicians. It remains to be seen whether the application process itself has embedded mechanisms of exclusion.
The mentors do not primarily act as teachers or coaches, but rather aim to support and accompany the participants in their artistic development. The artistic director also works alongside the participants in a mentoring role, in addition to overseeing the programme content. The mentor–participant ratio is exceptionally low – six mentors to fifteen participants – allowing intensive and productive work. That the team itself has a broad span of experiences adds to an overall atmosphere of trust between all present, with attentive and creative responses from participants being consistently observed.
The artistic director is selected by the project team – as a rule, they are an internationally-renowned jazz musician with artistic standing, strong communication skills and extensive experience in participatory programmes. The artistic director and project team then work together to assemble the team of mentors. The artistic director makes recommendations drawn from their own pool of professional contacts and these are combined with suggestions from the Elbphilharmonie network. The selection process is not only about achieving a mixture of instrumental specialisations, but also seeks to build a socially and aesthetically balanced dynamic that welcomes a variety of learning perspectives.
The focus of the week is the collaborative development of participants’ original compositions. The participants are arranged into new groups each day, and the hierarchies are deliberately kept flat. The rehearsals resemble a collective development process in which artistic ideas are negotiated. The mentors act as sources of inspiration, sparring partners and occasionally also as fellow musicians – but never as authority figures in the traditional sense.
The rehearsal thus becomes a space for social interaction, in which musical meaning is created through listening, responding, contrasting and synchronising – reminiscent of Ingrid Monson’s analysis of improvisational processes as musical conversation (Monson 1996, 73-76). Improvisation is therefore not understood as a product of the solitary genius, but more a social technique that requires shared knowledge, mutual attention and artistic openness.
This method of working is also noteworthy in terms of location – the Elbphilharmonie moves from its primary function as a performance venue to become a platform for artistic dialogue in which the young musicians themselves are the focus. The Academy consciously crosses the boundary between artistic production and performance, mediation and curatorial practice.
A central planning element involves arriving at a decision on the programme for the final concert to ensure a mixture of participants’ and mentors’ works, a balanced distribution of the 20 active players across various ensembles, as well as accurately gauging the duration of the evening. In most cases, the Academy participants will arrive independently at decisions about the casting of the ensembles. However, following a dress rehearsal the evening before in an external jazz club in front of approx. 200 invited guests, the artistic director will make programme adjustments where needed.
The stage design of the concluding concert plays an important role – it is set up with sofas, armchairs and floor lamps. All participants are on stage throughout, even when not actively involved in a work. This is intended to create a communal atmosphere to highlight the collective and non-competitive nature of the performance, as well as that which took place in terms of preparation and workshopping in the lead up. A blurring of the line between rehearsal and performance is deliberate, and was suggested in 2021 by mentor and drummer Ziv Ravitz, who encouraged participants to treat the rehearsal space as a stage. This style of collective experience that the Academy promotes has been shown to be artistically as well as personally transformative for participants. For example, the trumpeter Jakob Bänsch, a 2021 participant, remarked that “this week taught me more about jazz – or music in general – than probably any other week of my life.”
The week of activities culminates in a performance to a capacity audience of approx. 2,000 in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall. This is not only the first public airing of the new works developed over the week, but a rare opportunity for up-and-coming players to gain visibility. The concert itself is augmented by public events where the more traditional role of music mediation as contextual introduction is expanded to become a forum for dialogue and exchange between musicians, listeners and institutions. The events include presentations and panel discussions on the relevance, context and social positioning of contemporary jazz, and encompass topics such as gender and diversity, mental health in the music profession, research on the links between musical practice and brain development, as well as the social and economic implications of a changing global music market.
In general, the concert audience is younger and more diverse than a regular or mainstream jazz audience at the Elbphilharmonie. This is assumed to be due in part to the open programming format of the concert, along with a strong connection between the Jazz Academy and the venue’s wider music education programmes and networks. However, a further influencing factor is likely to be the fact that the listeners themselves identify with the age and demographic of those on stage.
It is worth noting that things do not come to a complete end with the concert. The artistic experiences of the Academy lead to the building of new networks and the expansion of career and performance opportunities for participants. New ensembles are formed and joint projects and follow-up performances are created, including invitations from and collaborations with mentors. For example, after the 2023 edition, follow-up performances by Academy members were organised for the Jazz & The City festival in Salzburg.
The effects are also to be noticed within the Elbphilharmonie itself as alumni are often engaged for the venue’s wider workshops, education projects or concerts. This has led to discussion on the feasibility of launching a new mentoring programme directed towards former Academy participants. The aim of this would be to support players and educators in the development of their own workshop and community engagement formats. In this way, the Academy could significantly contribute to nurturing and growing a network of artists who are also conversant with music mediation in jazz. To return to one of the main issues identified at the beginning of this article, this has the potential of giving the art form a more central and visible role in everyday education and community engagement programmes.
To support this growth, a central aim for future editions of the Academy is to document and analyse the outcomes and impacts more systematically – both on individual and organisational levels. An accompanying qualitative study along with a quantitative alumni survey may help to provide insights into sustainable effects and assist with further planning. The call-for-applications strategy also needs to be looked at in order to better reach under-represented groups. In parallel, a more thorough utilisation of existing international networks plus partnerships with institutions in other countries is being considered in order to bring new groups of applicants into the mix. The Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy represents a model of music mediation that does not explain jazz but makes it experienceable. It challenges many of the existing binaries, whether stage and audience, expert and layperson, or pedagogy and art. At the same time, the format raises political questions. Selection processes, institutional frameworks, and performance practices invite scrutiny with regard to who has access and who is visible. It also raises questions about which aesthetics are legitimised and who makes the decisions in such matters. A future-looking jazz mediation programme must not only create new formats but critically address existing structures. As a space for encounters and negotiation, with sound as the basis, the Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy already moves beyond many of the familiar top-down education formats. That the larger questions remaining – those of diversity, sustainability, and wider connectivity and communication – are mirrored in society more broadly also suggests that progress is within reach. Indeed, the Academy’s strength lies in the very openness with which it engages with and mediates challenges.
Hans-Georg Spiegel
What impact can jazz have today – beyond the stage? This is the question that drives the mediation module of the Dr. Langner Jazzmaster programme at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama. Central to the module is a seminar that frames jazz as a social, creative, and communicative practice. In collaboration with the Elbphilharmonie’s Education Department, students test this perspective through self-designed workshops for selected target groups. Students develop concepts that merge artistic skill with pedagogical curiosity and social responsibility. They learn not only to make music but to create spaces for participation, encounter, and reflection.
This chapter outlines the Elbphilharmonie Education Seminar’s development, didactic foundations, and the participants’ learning processes. It addresses organisational structures as well as core questions: How can music be shared without becoming didactic? How do group-based creative processes emerge? How can artistic mindsets shape educational spaces? An example – a workshop on sonic film design with children from an international class – shows how jazz, mediation, and education can merge into a powerful social language.
When I think of jazz, I think of creativity, community, communication, self-reflection, freedom and expression. Aren’t these attributes the very spark that will catapult our society safely into the 21st century? When do we truly begin to utilise these attributes to effect change – and isn’t it the duty of every artist to critically engage with society and its ongoing development?
At the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, the Dr. Langner Jazzmaster programme integrates this ethos not only through its focus on creative and academic engagement with jazz, and its encouragement of individual artistic pathways, but also through a mandatory mediation module. This module is realised in close collaboration with the Education Department of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.
Its aim is the development of a workshop concept for a self-selected target group. If chosen for implementation, students realise the project in cooperation with volunteers from the Elbphilharmonie’s Education Department and the selected participants. The seminar is also open to students of instrumental pedagogy, adding further diversity to the group. A final oral feedback session is followed by an anonymous evaluation as part of the Hamburg University of Music and Drama’s quality management system.
Following the establishment of the Dr. Langner Jazz Master programme in 2014 at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, it soon became clear that excellence in performance, engagement with key jazz-related fields – such as big band, ensemble, masterclasses, composition, arranging, and self-management – while essential, did not yet encompass the full potential of what jazz can offer. Mediation, understood as the transmission and transformation of knowledge and competencies, emerged as a central concern throughout the students’ educational journey. Nothing within the curriculum unfolds independently of this idea. At the heart of the programme lies a structure that encourages students to pursue individual focal points – ranging from composition and performance to business, pedagogy, popular and classical music, production, or other freely chosen areas.
At the initiative of Dr. E. A. Langner, the Elbphilharmonie’s Education Department launched a workshop series for master’s students in jazz at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, combining insights into music education with opportunities for students to develop their own project ideas. Over time, the format expanded from a one-day introduction to a one-weekend workshop, with a stronger focus on practical experience and internal student-led projects. In its third year, the programme grew into a key collaboration between the Jazz and Instrumental Pedagogy departments and the Elbphilharmonie’s Education Team. This partnership led to the development of a comprehensive seminar schedule. The strategic distribution of seminar dates throughout the semester consistently brought students into contact with the vital theme of music mediation, ensuring continuous engagement. A key pedagogical objective in designing the seminar was to encourage students to develop individual concepts that leveraged their existing strengths and specialisations. Furthermore, this collaboration offered instrumental pedagogy students the opportunity to choose the seminar as an elective, encouraging interdisciplinary exchange and highlighting the broader relevance of music education competencies.
There are a total of four compact input sessions at the beginning. Students individually select three observation dates during this initial phase, where they can observe the implementation of school workshops at the Elbphilharmonie. This connection to real-world workshops enables students to perceive the content of the input sessions in action, beyond the teaching setting. After the third input session, students decide on topics, which can then be planned and executed in groups of three or four. Within these groups, the self-chosen topics are then worked on and presented to the Elbphilharmonie team and the seminar leader from the university. The feedback from these presentations flows back into the design ideas of all seminar participants. Following the input sessions and individual group feedback, the individual concepts are briefly presented to the entire student group in February. The quality of the presentation determines whether the concept is viable and whether the workshop can then be implemented in the outcome-session in April. Parameters for feasibility include a coherent structure, realistic expectations, and detailed workshop planning. In recent years, we have always been able to conduct all workshops, as the students were very adept at incorporating the group feedback from the Elbphilharmonie educators and the pedagogical leader of the seminar, both in writing and argumentation.
Master’s students in jazz apply for a main instrument and an additional focus area. With the guidance of a mentor they set their personal study goals and design an individual curriculum. The Elbphilharmonie Education Seminar is a mandatory course that must be completed: the challenge lies in respectfully integrating the competencies of each student into the seminar’s execution. Neither the instruments nor the specialisations are the same in any two consecutive years. There are students who have already gained experience in music mediation, students who cannot imagine conducting a mediation project, and then there are instrumental pedagogy students who are very keen to conduct projects but often lack a good understanding of jazz and free improvisation. The instruments of individual students are often so heterogeneous that playable ensembles cannot be formed within the individual teams. The goal of the input sessions, in addition to providing information on music mediation, is to foster solidarity and a spirit of community such that everyone is truly enthusiastic about participating in the implementation. Interest in the different topics grows with the expansion of the seminar participants’ understanding and interest in the other groups.
As described above, very few students have studied music mediation or other pedagogical content during their studies. Nevertheless, a mediation competence is present: all are excellent instrumentalists or vocalists. This means that both their own experience of being taught and their individual playing or practice culture already constitute a part of their mediation experience. Students learn about the diversity of mediation knowledge within the group through exchange with the other participating students. A repertoire is developed from and with the seminar group, without being didactic. This repertoire, drawn from the locked chambers of individual knowledge, becomes common knowledge among the students through communication and critical thinking within the group. The competencies of individuals are shared, communicated, questioned, and, if necessary, expanded. With this pool of experience, the small groups then proceed to formulate and plan the workshop. Through the exchange, conversations about commonalities have already taken place, allowing for organic group formation among the smaller groups.
In my experience so far, students often find it difficult at first to clearly formulate what should be achieved, and what the benefit of the event is for the workshop participants. Even if certain content is particularly in focus, the outcome for the workshop participants often concentrates on participatory activities where the action, rather than an overarching goal, is central. The distinction between musical action and its objective is usually not made before individual feedback in the respective small groups. However, precisely formulating what the workshop participants should learn and internalise by the end sharpens the action in relation to the specific target group. Recognising the prerequisites within the workshop group and being able to align one’s actions accordingly represents an important learning task. On the one hand, much can be learned by asking questions in advance; on the other hand, this is not always possible, nor are the answers truly effective, as the competencies of the groups only really become apparent during the activity. In the input sessions, musical games are practiced beforehand which can provide information about a group’s basic competencies during execution. These basic competencies are either homogeneous or heterogeneously distributed across a broad spectrum of skills.
My favorite questions are always, “What particularly moves you about the topic, what does this topic have to do with you?” A personal connection to a topic, one’s own curiosity to learn more about it, generates enthusiasm for delving deeper. In the feedback rounds, the questions are always the most important, together with the argumentation within the group. The development of the topic thrives on the selection of suitable materials. With master’s students in Jazz, this always means establishing a connection to artistic practice. In the artistic realm, students possess a sense of what is successful and an idea of the outcome. Typically, several questions arise. For example: “What is groove within a group of workshop participants?”, “What does a solo mean to someone who is not used to stepping forward?”, “How can a solo be introduced?”, “What role does clear dramaturgy play during the execution?”, or “How can the parameters of Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan 1993) – the needs for autonomy, competence, and social relatedness – be achieved?” In considering these questions, students come to operate on familiar ground. For precisely these needs are uniquely supported in jazz performance, whether in one’s own learning or in a band or ensemble setting. From this secure foundation of skill and knowledge, the basic parameters can then be effectively transferred to the workshop situation. Jazz students create experiential spaces that align with the observed competencies of the group and enable the experience of autonomy, competence, and social integration among group members, fostering feel-good moments for the workshop participants.
For the collection of ideas and the organisation of suggestions within the group, all students are provided with a professional template developed by the staff of the Elbphilharmonie’s Education Department. This template professionally solicits all information a concert hall requires: name, workshop duration, required rooms and their equipment, instruments, lighting mood, instrument arrangement, etc. A brief summary of the workshop for a website, and an elevator pitch that sparks curiosity and informs, is then followed by an appendix with sheet music, room plans, and plans for necessary technology. The respective group will then collaboratively enter their existing ideas into a detailed timeline, which moves from warm-up and getting acquainted to the practical part and finally to a concluding summary.
Learning takes place within the group and with the group. Each person, as in a band, enriches the learning environment with their expertise. There are no permanent deciders, only well-presented suggestions. Learning in a group strengthens self-esteem and provides a sense of competence, which is indispensable for the creative process of development (Bandura 2001). No one is assigned a fixed role; all participants find and fulfill their place in the group processes. This form of learning reinforces the idea that music mediation is a creative process that utilises the component of improvisation just as an artist does when making music: intentionally and attentively, always oriented towards the target group and the ensemble. This powerful combination is reflected in the outcome for the workshop participants: they leave the Elbphilharmonie not lectured, but fulfilled. The same applies to the respective small groups. After each seminar round, a detailed feedback session is held in plenum, the content of which becomes part of the reflective basis for new seminar planning by the planning team. This has prevented redundancies and streamlined content, which in turn has led to more time for reflective engagement in the individual input sessions.
Both the Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy and the Elbphilharmonie Education Seminar at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama show different but complementary ways in which music mediation can be conceived and practised in a jazz context. They invite us to recognise that music mediation exists as a core musical activity in its own right – in other words, the programmes reinforce the understanding that mediation is not an add-on, but an artistic attitude embedded in the very act of making music. By encouraging emerging artists to engage in different ways with mediation formats, our intention from the outset is to acknowledge the flexible boundaries between performance, education and social dialogue.
In both programmes, the concept of a multi-faceted artistic identity is central; that creators have a responsibility to formulate and share ideas, forge new relationships, and seek and provide explanations as to the wider relevance of their work beyond technical mastery or career advancement. The Hamburg University of Music and Drama seminar programme deals with this directly by giving the students responsibility for the development of music mediation workshops and learning models as part of their artistic training and self-image as jazz musicians. Inversely, by focusing on a collective artistic aim, achieved via an intensive workshop and rehearsal process leading to a public airing, the Jazz Academy creates a space where the guiding principles of music mediation are always present. These guiding principles – collaboration, negotiation and artistic engagement, regardless of how defined the outcome is – ensure that contemporary players and creators in jazz are in regular dialogue with an ever-evolving audience and broader community.
Hans-Georg Spiegel would like to thank the team at the Elbphilharmonie, namely Anne Kussmaul, Anke Fischer, Benjamin Holzapfel, and Terhi Romu, for the wonderful organisation of the seminar within the Elbphilharmonie, the organisation of the rooms, the provision of equipment, and the facilitation of visits to school workshops; the students of the Dr. Langner Jazz Master programme for their creative and fruitful collaboration; and the programme coordinators Hannah Wellner and Michael Langkamp for patiently maintaining all communication channels.
Past Jazz Academy mentors: 2021 – Yaron Herman (Piano & Artistic Director), Melissa Aldana (Saxophone), Matt Brewer (Bass), Theo Croker (Trumpet & Trombone), Julia Hülsmann (Composition & Arranging), Ziv Ravitz (Drums). 2023 – Anat Cohen (Clarinet & Artistic Director), Clarice Assad (Vocals), Donny McCaslin (Saxophone), Sullivan Fortner (Piano), Martin Wind (Bass), Matt Wilson (Drums). 2025 – Donny McCaslin (Saxophone & Artistic Director), Gerald Clayton (Piano), Django Bates (Piano & Arranging), Jorge Roeder (Bass), Allison Miller (Drums), Jen Shyu (Vocals & Composition).↩︎
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Benjamin Holzapfel is Project Manager in the Executive Office of the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, where he coordinates the development of new public and event spaces and directs the Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy. From 2016 to 2024, he established and led the workshop programme within the Elbphilharmonie’s Education Department. He studied systematic musicology and educational sciences at the University of Hamburg and has worked as a musician in various bands, studio projects, theatre and orchestral productions, and also as a music educator and lecturer in diverse educational settings.
Hans-Georg Spiegel studied trombone, elementary music education, and accordion in Hamburg, Hilversum (NL), and Johannesburg (SA). He is Professor of Music Education at the University of Music and Theatre Hamburg, where he also heads the programme in Instrumental Pedagogy. Alongside his academic work, he teaches at the State Youth Music School of Hamburg, where he maintains a lively connection to everyday music-making – a foundation that continually inspires his teaching and research. As a performer, Hans-Georg Spiegel enjoys exploring many different musical worlds. He has appeared in theatre productions, on radio and television, and on a variety of recordings, collaborating with artists such as Michy Reincke, Michael Kiske, and the pop duo Fjarill. Together with his wife Hanmari, he is part of Duo Miroir, which performs an expressive and wide-ranging repertoire for accordion and violin.
Charles MacInnes began his career as an orchestral trombonist in Australia before shifting his focus to improvisation and composition. He completed a PhD in 2018 (Monash University, Melbourne), developing a framework for bringing improvisation to the foreground of the contemporary art music ensemble. Specialising in interactive music workshops and community engagement, Charles currently works in the Education Department of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. His recent publications include a chapter on composer Laura Karpman in Women’s Music for the Screen – Diverse Narratives in Sound (Routledge).
ISSN 2943-6109 – Volume 2/2 (2025) – DOI: 10.71228/ijmm.2025.34
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