Jazz Across Borders

SAXOPHONIST, PRODUCER, PEOPLE’S ARTIST OF RUSSIA,
PRESIDENT OF IGOR BUTMAN MUSIC GROUP,
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF MOSCOW JAZZ ORCHESTRA,
PRESIDENT OF JAB FORUM&FESTIVAL

IGOR BUTMAN

Igor Butman is justly considered as the top advocate of Russian jazz art in the world. In 1999 he founded his internationally acclaimed Igor Butman Orchestra (now — Moscow Jazz Orchestra), Quartet and Quintet, described by DownBeat Magazine as «an outfit of virtuosos». In past 20 years Igor Butman along with his bands toured dozens of countries and performed at the world’s biggest festivals.

Igor Butman released 17 albums both as a leader and co-leader, including Magic Land (Sony Classical) featuring Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci, Stefon Harris and Randy Brecker.

Igor Butman Music Group, led by Mr Butman, consists of the Igor Butman Jazz Club in Moscow, the Butman Music Records and the biggest Russian jazz concert agency IBMG, which runs 12 jazz festivals in Russia and represents the finest Russian artists abroad.

In 2016 Igor Butman was elected the President of the Russian Authors’ Society (Russian equivalent of ASCAP). In 2018 he became the initiator and co-artistic director (along with Herbie Hancock) of the International Jazz Day in St. Petersburg.

Since 2019 Mr Butman has been the head of the first Jazz Academy in thehistory of Russia.

Head of international projects department at Igor Butman Music Group, executive producer of JAB forum&festival Russian and VII International Jazz Day in St. Petersburg

ROMAN KHRISTYUK

Gnesin Academy of Music and Moscow State Academy of Law alumnus Roman Khristyuk started working with Igor Butman in 2005 as PR manager of Le Club (now Igor Butman Club). In 2006-2008 he collaborated with the Independent newspaper in Moscow as a concert observer. Now Roman is the executive producer of the Jazz Across Borders forum&festival and the head of international projects at Igor Butman Music Group, adding to it he’s working on worldwide tours for Igor Butman and Moscow Jazz Orchestra. Among IBMG’s international projects are Sochi Jazz Festival (Sochi), Triumph of Jazz (Moscow and St. Petersburg), Jazz Seasons at Gorky Leninsky (Moscow region), Future of Jazz (Moscow), Sakhalin-Hokkaido Jazz (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Sapporo), World Jazz Festival (Riga) and Skolkovo Jazz Festival (Skolkovo Innovation Center). Roman Khristyuk teaches PR and concert management at Music Management Faculty of Russian Gnesin Academy of Music. In 2018, as an executive producer, he led the working groupon the preparation and holding of the VII International Jazz Day in St. Petersburg.

Founder and leading expert of music project development agency InSimple, lecturer at RMA business school

ALEXEI NIKOLAEV

He was a music editor on channels Muz TV and NTV+, art director of the clubs Kult and Propaganda, and the director of the copyright department of the Zvooq music service.

He provided recruitment, staff training and consultations for such artists and companies as Nina Kraviz, Teslaboy, BlackStar Inc., Yulia Samoilova, Triangle Sun, Therr Maitz, Vlad Topalov, Google, Zvooq, Coub, Zion Records, Mubert, Galernaya20, iMixes, and many others.

He has organized more than 300 foreign artists’ tours in Russia and Russian DJs’ performances in the UK.

Art-director of JAM Club, founder of concert agency Pro Jazz

Anton Raktovich

Since 2016, he has organized more than 3,000 concerts in Andrey Makarevich’s JAM Club. He is one of the founders and the main organizer of the international jazz festival VR JAZZ Fest.

Anton organized jazz concerts of Andrey Makarevich, concerts of the American cellist Ian Maksin, and “no celebrity” sellout concerts in grand halls.

He is the teacher of a joint course by Timepad and Netology “How to Make Money out of Your Event”, the author of the webinars “Promoting Concerts”, a member of the jury of the New Open Showcase festival in Ekaterinburg, member of the jury of the jazz competition-festival Jazz Birds-2020.

WBGO journalist

Sheila Elaine Anderson

Always interested in jazz, in 1995 Ms. Anderson joined the staff of WBGO, Newark, New Jersey where she hosts Weekend Jazz After Hours and Salon Sessions and Sunday Night Music Mix. She has authored four books: The Quotable Musician: From Bach to Tupac (2003), The Little Red Book of Musicians’ Wisdom (Skyhorse Press, 2012). How to Grow as A Musician: What All Musicians Must Know to Succeed (2005), the second edition is set to publish in November, 2019 As festival producer her work includes curator of the Newark Museum’s Jazz in the Garden Series and a Columbia University Community Scholar, class of 2017.

Art director and managing director of Kozlov Club

Araik Akopyan

Araik is producer of BazzDay Ferstival, FuzzionDay Festival, Tilli Milli Jazz Festival and City Jazz Festival, co-founder the Jazzist media blog. He is Art director and managing director of Kozlov Club.

Editor-in-chief of Jazz.ru

Kirill MOSHKOW

His career in music journalism started in early 1990s, he broadcasted as DJ and special shows on-air host on several radio stations in Moscow, wrote about music for magazines and newspapers, provided copy and voice-over for TV shows about music, and edited jazz news for a news agency. In 1998, he was invited to Russia’s newborn Jazz Web outlet, Jazz.Ru, as managing editor; since 2006, he is also the publisher at Jazz.Ru Magazine.

He contributed for several jazz magazines in the U.S. and in Europe (DownBeat, AllAboutJazz.Com, Jazz Forum, Jazz.Pt, Jazzthetik etc.) Since 2014, he is a board member at the Russian Jazz research center in Yaroslavl. He also serves as coordinator of Europe Jazz Media, the ring of European jazz magazines.

Moshkow wrote several books in Russian on jazz and African American music, most notably Jazz Industry in America and The Blues, Introduction to the History. He also authored chapters on the history of jazz in Russia for Pearson’s Discover Jazz (2011) and for The History of European Jazz The Music (2017).

General Manager of Europe Jazz Network

Giambattista Tofoni

Giambattista Tofoni started his career as a musician and switched to the production field in 1985. He organised more than 2000 concerts at the most important Italian festivals (Ravenna, Verona, Mantova, Crossroads, TAM, La Biennale in Venice, etc.). In 2010, he became a Board member of I-Jazz, the Italian Jazz Federation. He is one of the founding members of EJN in 1987 and has been its General Manager since 2010. He is currently responsible for EJN’s vision, strategy and work program; overseeing the work of the staff/ focal points/working groups; representing EJN and its interests; leading on relationships with other European cultural networks and other relevant bodies.

Program Director of Jazz Across Borders

Dina Nurgaleeva

In 2010 she graduated from the State University of Management with a degree inManagement in cinema and TV. In 2013, she received her PhD in Economics. She worked indifferent fields such as film-making (projects of director Ilya Khotinenko), television (RussiaToday channel) and tourism (the Ritz Carlton hotel).Dina started her business career in music as the manager of Jazz Dance Orchestra. In 2016,she founded Magnetophone Music Agency. Co-producer of the annual open air festival Cityof Jazz at Aptekarsky Garden of the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University.Programm Director of Jazz Across Borders forum & festival within St. PetersburgInternational Cultural Forum. Programm Director of International Jazz Day in St. Petersburgin 2018

Pianist, member of the LRK TRIO, member of the Moscow Union of composers

Evgeny Lebedev

A graduate of Berklee College of Music (Boston), winner of the Montreux piano competition(Switzerland), Made in New York Jazz competition (USA), and winner of a special award fromBillboard magazine.

Executive director of Colisium International music convention

Sergey Babich

Since 2006 Sergey Babich has been a member of the management team of PMG Concert agency, specializing in organizing concerts and festivals of rock bands. In 2009-2010 he worked as a producer at Larisa LUSTA company. In 2010 he became the artistic director of Tsarskoye Selo concert hall.

In 2011, Sergei created his own event agency InnerSpace and became the main organizer of the concert and business program of the Moscow musical exhibition NAMM Musikmesse Russia.

Since 2013, he has been the executive director of the first industry project Colisium International music convention, focused on the development of the music and concert industry. Within four years of Colisium’s existence, Sergey held 20 conferences with more than 12,000 delegates from 22 countries and more than 2500 industry experts as speakers.

Executive director, Head of Rainy Days Records

Evgeniy Petrushanskiy

Evgeny Petrushansky is a graduate of the Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics University (St. Petersburg). He has been working as an independent documentary photographer for more than ten years, writing for print and online media abroad and in Russia. For eight years Evgeny has been working as a guide-interpreter with one of the main companies in St. Petersburg which specializes in walking and cycling tours.

In 2017, together with friends and like-minded colleagues, he founded the independent jazz label Rainy Days Records. The main idea of creating the label is to support those who think as modern people, without limiting themselves to certain frames and clichés, and to create comfortable conditions for the development or realization of their musical ideas. An important stage in the development of the label was the release of the debut recording of the Russian drummer Sasha Mashina “Outsidethebox”, as well as the Rainy Days Jazz Fest festival, which was held in St. Petersburg and Moscow in August 2018 and became the harbinger of the music season both for jazz lovers and musicians.

Editor-in-Chief, Communication Holding InterMedia.

Evgeniy Safronov

Yevgeny Safronov worked as a consultant and analyst at the Ministry of Culture of the USSR. The Head and a participant of the working groups on cultural research and the preparation of legislation at the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and other organizations. He is the author of more than two hundred analytical publications on organizational and economic issues of the cultural sphere in the leading Russian media, a regular speaker of national and international conferences and educational programs.

Yevgeny Safronov is the founder and the director of several mass media organizations (the magazine and the news agency «Tourne», the InterMedia news agency, the Russian musical yearbook, the magazine and the television channel 1Rock, etc.).

Producer and director of the Jazz May Festval, enterpriser

Oleg Rubtsov

In 2010, Oleg Rubtsov decided to return to Penza and open an intellectual literature store called “Vpereplete. Other books” (2010-2015). Among the writers who spoke to the audience of the store, Dmitry Bykov, Irina Khakamada, Vera Polozkova and others. Since 2010, Oleg has been involved in organizing major urban cultural events, including the Humanitarian Forum “Searching for The Province” (2013- 2014), the Ivan Mozzhukhin Film Featival “A Male Role”.

Oleg developed a project of the Penza Book Fair, in 2013-2015, he worked as its producer and director. The fair was held with the support of the Government of the Penza Region (2013) and the Administration of the city of Penza (2014) in the framework of the Humanitarian Forum “Searching for The Province”. In 2015, it gained the status of an autonomous event. In 2012, Oleg joined the organizing committee of the International Jazz May Music Festival, established by the Department of Culture and Archives of the Penza Region. Since 2014, he has been the producer and director of the festival.

Musician, head of jazz department at Musorgsky Music College

Sergey Bogdanov

In 2009 along with Kirill Bubyakin, Sergey put together the Jazz Philarmonic Orchestra featuring artists from the State Philarmonie of Jazz Music. He collaborated with Igor Butman, David Goloshyokin, Valery Ponomarev, Ilya Lushtak, Jean-Loup Longnon, Sharon Clark, Steve Grossman, Jason Brown, Clifford Barbaro and Matts Holmquist, as well as with a famous Russian rock band Aquarium.

He wrote arrangements for Greg Ruvolo Big Band, Class Center Big Band, JFC Potluck Big Band and Kazan Philarmonie Jazz Orchestra. Since

2011 he has been the head of jazz studies at the Mussorgsky Music College and the leader of the Mussorgsky Jazz Orchestra. Jazz education section speaker at Jazz Across Borders 2017 and an active participant in events dedicated to the International Jazz Day in St. Petersburg.

Jazz drummer, music producer of Rainy Days Records, music director of Rainy Days Jazz Fest

Sasha Mashin

Sasha Mashin is one of the most extraordinary and talented Russian jazz drummers. He was born and began his professional career in Leningrad. In 1991, he joined the legendary Kvadrat jazz club. From 1995 to 1998, Sasha was a regular member of the Igor Butman Quartet. Having moved to Moscow in 1998, he has been constantly collaborating with the best jazz musicians in the country. Also he took the part in the creation of the MocGorTrio band.

In 2005, Sasha went to New York to participate in the Open World Educational Program. Since 2008, he has been actively touring in Russia and Europe with the best Russian and Western musicians. Since 2017, the Yamaha company has been presenting Sasha Mashina as its endorser.

In 2018, Sasha released the debut album “Outsidethebox”, recorded with the participation of Alex Sipyagin and Zhenya Strigalev. The record became one of the most important events of the year in the jazz life of Russia. In the same year, he became the music producer of the Rainy Days Records label and the music director of the Rainy Days Jazz Fest.

Owner and CEO of Justjazz agency

Catherine Mayer

Catherine Mayer has been in the business all of her life. Born into a family of Jazz lovers, her dad, Gerd Mayer, was a pioneer in the German Jazz Scene after World War 2. Her father made a business out of his passion and founded Konzertdirektion Gerd Mayer/Just Jazz Int officially in 1960. He brought mainly US artists into the Post War Europe. In her childhood, Catherine had the honor to meet a lot of the greats in Jazz as Ella Fitzgerald or Teddy Wilson, Slam Steward, Buddy Tate and many, many more.

When her father passed about 20 years ago, she took over the family business. Her first tour was with the legendary Illinois Jacquet Big Band. Her company Just Jazz International has grown into one of the finest concert agencies and artist management companies based in Europe, booking tours for Take 6, Bob James, The Manhattan Transfer, Till Bronner, Patti Austin, Ivan Lins and many more internationally acclaimed artists

Artistic Director of the Koktebel Jazz Party International Festival

Mikhail Ikonnikov

Mikhail Ikonnikov has been working on radio since 1989. He is one of the founders of Radio 101, radio host, author and presenter of the program “Jazz. Private collection”. In 1998, he won the Popov Prize in the nomination “Specialized Program” for the program “Jazz. Private collection”.

He worked on Radio ROKS, Radio Prestige, Radio NSN, Radio 1 and Radio Mayak. Since 2014, she has been working as an author and host of a music section on Radio Sputnik in Crimea and Music Director of Radio RT in Sochi. Since August 2018, he has held the position of the program director of Radio Jazz.

Since 2014 – Art Director of the Koktebel Jazz Paty International Festival in Crimea.

Lawyer, CEO of iPpro legal company

Alexander Leonov

Alexander is a Patent Attorney, Eurasian Patent Attorney, member of the International Trademark Association (INTA), and the CEO of iPpro legal company. iPpro company collaborates on copyright issues with famous music groups and artists: Kylie Minogue, Therr Maitz, Alexey Kozlov Club, Music Parking, InSimple and others. iPpro company collaborates with famous music groups and artists on copyright matters: Kylie Minogue, Therr Maitz, Alexey Kozlov Club, Music Parking, InSimple and others. Concurrently with the above-mentioned activities, Mr Leonov worked as a senior lecturer in economic law at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics from 2006 to 2014.

Event director, project manager at the event-agency Guild of Masters

Anastasia Larina

Anastasia graduated from the faculty of theatrical and traditional forms of activity of Saint-Petersburg State Institute of Culture with a major in directing in 2002. She has been the director and project manager at the full-service event agency Guild of Masters since 2005.

Over the years, she created and organized many projects of different types and scales: from official and private to city events, from private parties to multi-thousand festivals. Above this, Anastasia works with other agencies as a project manager in different cities of Russia. She has been a drama teacher at the Young Spectator’s Theatre since 2008. In 2014, Anastasia graduated from the School of Business Trainers, and became a certified business coach major in the development of creative thinking.

Producer and Events Organizer of business and creative projects

Andrey Soldatkin

In 2000, Andrey Soldatkin created the RUCEA group of companies which started to be involved in the management of foreign and Russian artists and the organization of events in Russia and around the world. For 18 years, the company has organized more than 1,500 various events and performances of the artists including David Guetta, Craig David, Roisin Murphy, De Phazz, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Paul Oakenfold, Tito & Tarantulla and many others.

Andrey held his own events for thousands of people in partnership with the Moscow Gaudi Arena, participated in organizing youth festivals “Godskitchen” for the British promotional company Angel Music Group. He participated in organizing press-junket tours of Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, James Cameron and many other Hollywood stars in Moscow. Andrey is the concert organizer of Anton Rumyantsev, Anna Buturlina, Daniil Kramer and other Russian artists, the General Producer and the creator of the scientific and educational festival “Pulkovsky Meridian”.

MARCUS STAGE Concert Agency Managing Partner

Anna Bersudskaya

Anna Bersudskaya has worked as a top manager of system integration, production and high-tech equipment sales, promotion and advertising industries more than 15 years.

Over the past few years, she became deeply involved in the restaurant business. And she is currently a start up, restaurant projects development and promotion consultant.

Anna along with her associates founded the MARCUS STAGE concert agency in 2018. Today, MARCUS STAGE agency manages, promotes and launches PR campaigns for concerts and other music events. The Agency is the official PR partner of the New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theater, and works with most popular jazz and classical musicians.

Head of Creative Projects and Product Integrations at OK, Mail.ru Group

Anton Danilov

In 2008, Anton became a co-founder of the startup be-in.ru, where he was in charge of the St. Petersburg’s media development in Moscow and Russian regions, and ran the department of commerce and special projects from 2008 to 2016.

He launched a series of Susanin local guide travel guides. Travel books on some popular cities sponsored by tourism committees and companies are published every year. In 2016, he joined the business development team of the OK social network (part of the Mail.ru Group holding), where he started working on creative projects in the fields of culture and lifestyle. Currently, Anton is head of creative projects and product integration at OK, Mail.ru group. In 2018, he came up with and set up the project We are off to the museum whereby virtual exhibitions were launched together with the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the Russian Museum and others. There were five museums exhibition called Flemish Masters in the northern region of Belgium in 2019. Anton has become a producer of the OK Live bands young musicians contest since 2019.

Bassist for the jazz band LRK Trio

Anton Revnyuk

He studied under the prominent bass player Anatoly Sobolev, performed in New York with saxophonist Anatoly Gerasimov and with the Igor Bril ensemble at the Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada. In the early 2000s as part of the Yakov Okun trio, he worked with many American artists on the Russian stage: saxophonists Donny Maccaslin, Craig Handy, Johnny Griffin, trumpet player Alexander Sipyagin and others

Independent organizer and programmer

Arlette Hovinga

Arlette Hovinga has been roaming the international jazz scene for a number of years. First as a PA to Motown legends like The Four Tops on their EU tours and working alongside stars like Jeff Goldblum and Mary Wilson. Later she became involved in the organizing of multiple jazz events in The Netherlands such as Jazzfestival Delft, North Sea Round Town and Jazz in de Gracht.

Head of JIVE Group production center, general producer and organizer of Kazan LIVE, pianist, composer

Valery Korotkov

Valery Korotkov is a Laureate of International Contests and Festivals, bandleader, arranger and pianist of JIVE, one of the oldest jazz bands of Tatarstan, as well as indie Tatar music groups A-BAND and New Моң. Adding to it he has worked as a pianist and concertmeister of the rhythm section in jazz orchestras in Russia, the USA and Israel since 1993.

Adding to being busy as a musician, Mr Korotkov is the general producer and organizer of International Festival of Contemporary Culture Kazan LIVE (ex-Kremlin LIVE). Valery was awarded the Russian President Medal for organizing the cultural program of the World Summer Universiade in Kazan.

Founder and producer of The International Blues Festival Bridges

Vladimir Rusinov

In 2003, Vladimit started a band called The Jumping Cats, which recorded several albums, successfully performed in Russia, Europe and even in Kathmandu.

Vladimir started his activities as a promoter in 2010, building tours for American and European blues artists. Many blues artists have been on tour in Europe and Russia over the past 10 years at his invitation: Bob Margolin, John Nemeth, Kirk Fletcher, Ina Forsman, JW Jones, Aki Kumar, Johnny Burgin, Ina Forsman, Laura Chavez and others. In 2018, Vladimir founded Bridges Festival, its participants have included winners of Blues Music Awards.

Soviet and Russian musician and musicologist, jazz expert

Vladimir Feiertag

Alumnus of Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music and Leningradsky University, Vladimir became famous in his student years, leading a jazz orchestra, arranging music and promoting jazz. In 1960 along with Valery Mysovsky he published the first book about jazz in Russian, in 1966 he became a lecturer of Lenconcert state agency. He orgazined the first ever jazz series of concerts not only at the concert halls of Leningrad, but at the Philharmonic Halls of many cities of the Soviet Union as well. In the 1990s he lectured abroad (USA, Germany, Denmark, Austria), and became a successful music manager — he toured Europe with many Russian and Ukrainian bands and Russia — with internationally acclaimed artists including Count Basie orchestra, John McLaughlin trio, Dave Brubeck quartet, etc. Vladimir is the author of 10 books about jazz, including first encyclopedias about jazz, he contributed more than 100 articles to major jazz magazines throughout the world.

People’s Artist of Russia, multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, artistic director and founder of the Jazz Philharmonic.

David Goloshyokin

David Goloshyokin’s career in jazz spans for more than 45 years! He is one of the most authoritative and popular musicians of our country, recognized all over the world. His passion for jazz started when he was 15 years old, and a turning point in has carreer became his tenure at the famous orchestra of Joseph Weinstein. Since 1968, David Goloshchekin has been the leader of the legendary Ensemble of Jazz Music, a band with a large international touring geography.

In 1989, with assistance of Valentina Matvienko, David Goloshyokin launched the Philharmonia of jazz music. Today the Philharmonia is one of top notch jazz clubs in the world. For last 16 years David has been the music director and founders of The Swing of the White Night Jazz Festival. He’s the host and author of numerous series of jazz programs at St. Petersburg and Russian television and radio.

Program Director of JAZZ 89.1 FM Radio

Dmitry Khohlov

In 1989, Dmitry started his career in TV and radio as a sound man at the airing department of the television program South of Russia in Volgograd. Then he became the editor-in-chief of the Music Program Department. He set up along with partners the New Wave radio station in Volgograd in 1994 and started local broadcasting for Russkoe Radio, AvtoRadio, worked with Echo of Moscow, Silver Rain, Radio Shanson and other radio stations. He worked as the CEO of Russkoe Radio in Volgograd and the producer of the New Wave Media Group. In 2004 he got a rank of the Honored Signalman of Russia. He organized city days, destivals, concerts, various events. Dmitry was appointed the Program Director of the Radio JAZZ 89.1 FM by Multimedia Holding in 2019.

Non Cadenza and SPb Jazz Septetus bandleader, pianist, composer, arranger

Evgeny Ponomarev

Evgeny graduated from St. Petersburg Mussorgsky College of Music in 2002 and Saint Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts in 2007. He taught musical arrangements in Mussorgsky College of Music from 2006 to 2008 and worked as a musical director of the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd over more than 6 years. In 2017, he presented his author’s program for the quartet featuring A. Polovko, G. Voskoboinik and P. Mikheev.

In the two years of the quartet’s history the musicians played concerts at large venues in St. Petersburg, including The Small Hall of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia and the New Stage of Alexandrinsky Theatre, the best jazz clubs in Moscow (Igor Butman Club, Alexey Kozlov Club, Esse jazz clubs), tooked part in The Jazz Across Borders forum & festival and The International Jazz Day, performed at numerous festivals – Brodsky DRIVE, Rainy Days Jazz Fest and released their debut album NN Song.

Creative music and educational project’s manager at CASIO

Ivan Parshentsev

Ivan graduated from the Pop/Jazz Voice Department of Moscow State Pedagogical University. He organizes academic and jazz piano concerts, educational events and supervises collaborations with festivals at CASIO. Among the projects he worked on are Generation NEXT, Territory of Success, DrumsFest Russia 2019, SONGWRITING WEEK`19, literary festival ALOUD, LRK Trio band concerts, the Turn Over Play project by Dmitry Malikov, Moscow Seasons, Jazz Moscow at the Gilyarovsky Center, Opera in the Travel Palace.

Drummer of LRK Trio

Ignat Kravtsov

Ignat Kravtsov was born in Ekaterinburg, and before moving to Moscow in 2013 played in a variety of jazz to rock bands. The teamwork with his bandmates in LRK Trio Evgeny Lebedev and Anton Revnyuk contributed him to show a new side as a universal drummer, capable of presenting own music within the band and implementing his bandmates’ excitingly sophisticated ideas in a creative way. Beyond the LRK Trio, he plays in a Russian indie rock band Therr Maitz and leads his own progressive rock&fusion band Amber Sept.

Head of Light Music company, festival producer

Ilya Bortnуuk

Ilya Bortnyuk has been in the music industry since 1990. Ilya is currently the general producer of Stereoleto and Parts of World (Chasti Sveta) festivals, artistic director of Morze musical club & festival, head of a music label and director of a Russian major record company. In 2001, Ilya founded Light Music company, which has become one of the main independent promoting companies in Russia.

Development and promotion director of The JIVE Group Production Center, producer and manager of The Kazan LIVE International Festival of Contemporary Culture

Inna Gorodetskaya

Inna is a professional social psychologist, candidate of psychological sciences, PhD, associate professor, educator, author of more than 130 academic articles and non-fiction stories.

She is carrying out in psychological studies of creative people, cross-cultural processes, motivation and communication. She gives lectures at universities of Russia in Russian and English.

Since 2008 Inna has been leading the development and promotion projects at the JIVE Group Production Center, and has been driving the cultural and youth event concepts.

Radario Marketing Director

Kirill Malyshev

Kirill graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Dostoevsky Omsk State University. Prior to starting his career in PR, he worked for more than 5 years as a mass media journalist in morning news on radio, news agencies and glossy magazines in Omsk. Kirill has been working in marketing and external communications services, telecommunication and IT companies in St. Petersburg (ER-Telecom, Peter-Service) since 2011. He has been developing the marketing and PR department of Radario, a company which elaborates cloud solutions for sales, marketing and audience reach automatization in the entertainment industry. Kirill is the organizer of Cultural Marketing educational project and conference for experts in the cultural and entertainment industry to raise issues on modern marketing and PR tools in the event industry.

Jazz singer and composer.

Kristina Kovalyova

Kristina Kovalyova is a jazz singer and composer, musician with a unique sense of style and creative freedom, a vibrant tone and charming charisma. She took part in The Voice of Ukraine TV contest, International Jazz Day 2018 (St. Petersburg) and Rigas Ritmi Festival 2019 (Latvia), where she was awarded with the First prize and Raimond Pauls’ special prize.

Kristina has been frequently touring Russia and other countries with Russian musicians and NY pianist Jon Davis. Deeply influenced by Ukrainian music and culture, she combines jazz and Ukrainian folk music. Kristina released her debut album Hristya v Namysti featuring outstanding St. Petersburg musicians in June 2019.

Artistic director of Porgy & Bess, Vienna

Christoph Huber

Born 1968 in Baden, Switzerland. Graduated from the University of Vienna in 1993 with a degree in sports management. In 1991-1998 Cristoph was the co-organiser (together with Gerhard Eder) of the International Jazzfestival Saalfelden, in 1993 he held the Symposium “The Situation of the Contemporary Music on the example of Jazz” in Saalfelden. In 1993-2000 he served as the artistic & organizational director (together with Mathias Rüegg, Renald Deppe and Gabriele Mazic) of Jazz & Musicclub Porgy & Bess in Vienna, and in 2000 he became the director of the “new” Porgy & Bess in the rooms of the legendary Rondell-Kino in the center of Vienna. Among his other accomplishments are holding Good News from Russia festival in Vienna (1999), creating a concept of Grabenfesttage (together with Christoph Cech) and a jazzclub at the Kunsthalle Wien in the Museumsquartier, programming of The Great American Songbook series at Amerika exhibition at the Belvedere museum in Vienna (1999), holding the 30A series at Radiokulturhaus (1999-2000).

Publicist, concert promoter, radio host, owner of Lydia Liebman Promotions

Lydia Liebman

Lydia Liebman founded boutique jazz public relations firm Lydia Liebman Promotions in 2010. Liebman started by promoting local shows at Scullers Jazz Club, Berklee’s Café 939 and Wally’s Jazz Café. Her first account was Danilo Perez’s Berklee Global Jazz Institute. Since then, LLP has grown to become one of the most active and soughе after PR firms in jazz today. LLP’s impressive roster includes artists from all spectrums of jazz including Wallace Roney, Ralph Peterson, Catherine Russell, Brandee Younger and many more.

She spearheaded the Grammy campaigns for the Baylor Project (whose independent album The Journey went on to gain two nominations in 2017) and Spanish Harlem Orchestra’s Anniversary, winner of Best Tropical Latin Album in 2018. She has promoted concerts at storied venues like Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, The Kennedy Center and Berklee Performance Center, along with most major jazz clubs in the United States.

She is a member of The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences’ (NARAS), an associate member of the Jazz Journalists Association and has served on the Board of Directors of JazzBoston.

Production manager of JazzLab

Lobke Aelbrecht

Lobke Aelbrecht, a member of the Board of Directors of Europe Jazz Network, works as an artistic production manager at JazzLab, a concert organisation platform based in Ghent, Belgium. By building long-term partnerships with venues and setting up collaborations with other organisations, JazzLab allows Belgian jazz musicians to tour in decent venues all over the country and also abroad.

Even though her education and the first ten years of her professional career were in academia, in the linguistic department of universities in Ghent and Brussels, Lobke has always embraced the music scene. A few years ago she made a clear switch away from academia and into the cultural sector, with her job at Flanders Arts Institute, a research and support center for the performing arts, music and fine arts in Flanders and Brussels, funded by the Flemish government. Lobke was the representative for jazz, folk and world music.

Deputy director, artistic director of the Udmurt State Philharmonic Society

Maria Vidmak

Maria graduated from the musical and pedagogical department of VG Korolenko Glazov State Pedagogical Institute (piano and concertmaster class) in 2006. In 2011-2017 she was a program manager of the concert repertoire at Udmurt State Philharmonia. Maria has been a deputy director and artistic director of the Udmurt State Philharmonic Society since 2017.

Alongside with professional duties Maria takes part in scientific researches in the field of classical music management.

Ms Vidmak held the following projects: IzhJazzFest, Literary Festival: In the Homeland of P. I. Tchaikovsky, Online Art Contest In the Homeland of P. I. Tchaikovsky (2016), a joint project with the New Names Foundation (more than 1000 Udmurt young musicians as participants); Music Summer Festival (which was attended by more than 10,000 residents of Udmurtia).

Founder of Arts & Parts Ltd

Martel Ollerenshaw

Based in London and working internationally, Martel Ollerenshaw is an international arts broker and creative producer. With a wide portfolio of skills and interests, she works actively with artists, organisations and festivals to create and produce work that is pioneering and often genre blurring. Between 2002 and 2017, she worked at Serious International Music Producers/EFG London Jazz Festival, where her portfolio included Seriously Talented, the acclaimed suite of talent development programmes (i.e., Take Five, Take Five Europe and Air Time) for professional musicians working in jazz and improvised music, and now leads her own company Arts & Parts Ltd, which is a flexible vehicle to create and produce performing arts projects of all kinds, with a particular emphasis on music and interdisciplinary work. Martel is the Chair of Pacitti Company/SPILL Festival, the vice president of the Europe Jazz Network, a board member of the Australian Music Centre, and hcmf// (Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival).

Programming director of Katowice JazzArt Festival

Martyna Markowska

Since 2013, Martyna Markowska has been the head of programming of the Institution of Culture Katowice City of Gardens, where she programmes the Katowice JazzArt Festival and the world music festival Gardens of Sounds. In addition to writing for numerous publications dedicated to interdisciplinary forms of art, she specialises in curating interdisciplinary and social projects within the programme of Katowice — UNESCO Creative City of Music such as Polish aspect of Czech Music Crossroads in Ostrava. She was a member of the team that organised WOMEX 2017 in Katowice, and is a current board member of Europe Jazz Network. In 2019 she became a part of the programme committee for European Jazz Conference in Novara in September 2019.

Executive director of Tampere Music Festivals

Minnakaisa Kuivalainen

Minnakaisa Kuivalainen, former Vice-President of Finland Festivals and Pirkanmaa Regional Fund, now is the executive director of Tampere Music Festivals, an organisation which holds three festivals in Finland: Tampere Jazz Happening, Tampere Biennale and Tampere Vocal Music Festival. She was elected to the Board of Directors of European Jazz Network in 2017.

Founder and art director of the Moscow International Jazz Festival in the Hermitage Garden

Michael Green

Michael Green is a journalist, producer, one of the catalysts of jazz life in Moscow, founder and permanent art director of the Moscow International Festival Jazz in the Hermitage Garden.

In 1997, together with Alex Rostotsky, he launched his first jazz club Birdland, where almost all Moscow jazz musicians performed afterwards. That’s where he found like-minded musicians who he started to work with as a producer.

He released CDs Black Coffee and My Favorite Songs (by Anna Buturlina, 2002 and 2006), Get Happy (by Vladimir Danilin, 2006), All Right, OK, You Win (by Anna Koroleva, 2006), Black and White (by German Lukyanov, 2008) and two live CDs recorded at the 5th and 6th editions of the Jazz in the Hermitage Garden (2003, 2004). He was a artistic director and a member of the board of Moscow Jazz Engagement from 2003 to 2006. Along with the Cervantes Institute in Moscow, he held the First Russian-Spanish Jazz Festival in 2004. He hosted his own programs of Latin American music under a nick name Don Miguel at various Moscow radio stations from 1992 to 2017. Michael is one of the authors and editors of two memoir collections of jazz veterans, published under the name HERMITAGE Almanac in 2018 and 2019.

Pianist, Research Committee Chair at Jazz Education Network

Monika Herzig

Monika Herzig is a faculty member in Arts Administration of Indiana University, head of the research committee for the Jazz Education Network and editor of JAZZ (Jazz Education in Research and Practice, IU Press). Her book David Baker – A Legacy in Music was released on November 2011 on IU Press, and Experiencing Chick Corea: A Listener’s Companion on

Rowman and Littlefield, 2017. She has released more than a dozen CDs under her leadership on her own ACME Records as well as Owl Studios and Whaling City Sounds. Her awards include a 1994 Down Beat Magazine Award for Best Original Song, a Jazz Journalist Association Hero 2015 award, as well as grants from the NEA, the Indiana Arts Commission, MEIEA, among others. Her newest project “SHEROES” was cited as one of the best releases of 2018 in DownBeat Magazine, placing #31 on the year-end Jazz Week Charts.

Musicologist at Chelyabinsk State Philharmonic, journalist, concert host

Natalya Rikker

Natalya is the initiator and scriptwriter for a wide range of theatrical shows by Igor Burko’s Ural Dixieland. As a part of it she participated in jazz festivals in Russia and abroad and has been the ensemble’s director since 2016. Natalya is an artistic director and host of the Spring beat international jazz festival, and artistic director and host of What A Wonderful World international jazz festival. Ms Rikker is the author of different broadcasts at Chelyabinsk radio stations, including Jazz Time weekly program aired from 2003 to 2007. She worked as well for the Culture News project at South Ural State Television and Radio Company. Ms Rikker has published a dozen of articles devoted to Chelyabinsk musical life. She teaches the history of pop music styles at South Ural State Institute of Arts P.I. Tchaikovsky.

Director and founder of The International Boutique Festival CHESS & JAZZ, program director of The Bosco Fresh Fest, CEO of I’M IN booking agency

Nick Babin

Nick is a graduate of musical management faculty of Gnessin Russian Academy of Music. He has been a program director of the Bosco Fresh Fest since 2012. Nik founded the CHESS & JAZZ festival in 2018, which is held with a great success in Moscow, Singapore and Almaty. Nick has organized concerts for such artists as Gregory Porter, Gogo Penguin, Cory Henry & Funk Apostles, James Blake, John Newman, Ceelo Green, Roisin Murphy.

JazzMap.ru Editor and Creative Director

Olga Karpova

Olga Karpova is a graduate of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. In the late 1990s, she worked for the 2nd and 5th TV channel of Russia, then she plunged into web marketing and online journalism. In 2013 she took up a new hobby – JazzMap.ru blog – started photo and video shooting. What was done for a mere pleasure progressed into a huge musical project that now covers jazz events and concerts in both capitals, and shares latest news about the Russian jazz scene. Jazzmap.ru offers big photo reports of concerts and jazz festivals, exclusive videos and interviews. Over time, social communities and Youtube channel were added to the blog. JazzMap.ru main objective is to gather jazz performers and lovers, to provide latest information about upcoming concerts of Russian and foreign stars of jazz music, jazz festivals and interesting creative collaborations. A “westward expansion” in the form of two similars projects in London and Boston is planned for two coming years.

Jazz vocalist, director of Art Of Jazz Company, director of international jazz festivals

Olga Skepner

Olga Skepner is a founder and music director of the International Festival of Improvisational Music «Jazz in the Kremlin with Olga Skepner» (Kazan, Tatarstan), the International Music Festival Hόtel de ville (Kazan, Tatarstan) and the International Festival of Contemporary Music “Brunswick Diagonals” (Germany-Russia).

In 2006, she founded the production center «Art of Jazz Company», which promotes modern improvisational and jazz music, the genres of ethno jazz and world music. In 2010, she became an organizer of the Days of French Culture in Kazan, as part of which the Jazz music festival «Le Jazz» was held in Kazan. In 2011, she was a director of the State Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan at the Tuqay Tatar State Philharmonia.

Since 2013, as a singer, she has been cooperating with jazz pianist and composer Andrei Rudenko. In the same year she founded a group, which included famous Russian jazz musicians. Director of famous Russian pianist and composer Evgeny Borets and “Evgeny Borets Trio”.

Deputy director of the Jazz Academy, trombonist, conductor, composer and arranger

Pavel Ovchinnikov

Pavel collaborated with the jazz orchestras of Kim Nazaretov, Georgy Garanyan, Sergey Zhilin and Berlin International Orchestra. Since 2004 Pavel has been playing at the Moscow Jazz Orchestra conducted by Igor Butman.

Since 2014, Pavel Ovchinnikov has been leading the orchestra class and teaching jazz trombone at the Department of Jazz & Pop Music at the Maimonides State Classical Academy. In 2017-2019 he occupied a position of the deputy director of the State College of Brass Art, now Pavel is the first deputy director of the Jazz Academy.

Pavel is the artistic director of the Jazz Triumph for Kids international jazz festival & competition and the musical director of the The Future of Jazz international festival.

Pavel’s arrangements and musical pieces are performed by many famous musicians both in Russia and abroad.

CEO of Jazz Do It Music agency and JDI Multimedia, co-producer of the ZAVTRA festival, the project Classics in the Dark

Robert Bagdasarov

Robert has been a head of marketing and producer at the Russian office of One-Go-Events (the Netherlands), actively engaged in the family entertainment area (Disney Live!, Genius DaVinci, Sharks, Human Body).

In 2009, he started a production company Jazz Do It Music Agency. The agency organizes concerts, festivals, among its brightest projects are: ZAVTRA festival (Moscow and St. Petersburg), Skypark Live! Festival (Sochi), ZAZ tours, concerts of Duke Ellington Orchestra, Count Basie Orchestra, Marcus Miller, George Benson, Brand New Heavies, Al Jarreau, Yiruma, Stanley Clarke, Richard Bona, Richard Galliano, Incognito, Jazzanova feat. Paul Randolph, Yamato, Chucho Valdes and others. Since 2017 Robert has been devekoping Jazz Do It Multimedia studio – studio specializing in realtime graphics, video content creation and interactive installations.

Trumpeter, pianist, musical director of XJAZZ Festival

Sebastian Studnitzky

The trumpeter and pianist STUDNITZKY has always been a traveller between the realms of jazz, classical and electronic music. He travelled the world as member of Mezzoforte, Nils Landgren Funk Unit, Jazzanova, Dominic Miller, Wolfgang Haffner and many others.

Since 2015 he has been concentrating on his own projects – the jazz/electronic band KY, his orchestra project MEMENTO and solo shows as well.

In 2012 he founded Contemplate music, his own record label. In 2014 he initiated the XJAZZ Festival Berlin and took charge as its musical director. It immediately became Berlin’s largest jazz festival (90 concerts in 4 days in 11 venues, reaching 21.000 people) and launched international editions as well (Reykjavik, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Minsk). In 2019 XJAZZ also launched an own label and a streaming app.

Since 2014 Sebastian Studnitzky has been a professor for Jazz trumpet at the Dresden University of Music and since 2017 at Jazz Institute Berlin as well

Head of event-agency Mood Engineer, executive producer.

Sergey Lopatin

Sergey Lopatin has been working in the event industry since 2000.

He founded the agency “Mood Engineer”, there are some privilege clients such as: Sberbank, PIRELLI, Volvo, Hyundai and others. Agency has successfully held events in Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Scotland and Monaco, established the partnership with European event agencies. The Mood Engineer Agency also organizes events for the Ministry of Culture and the Government of St. Petersburg.

Jazz saxophonist, founder of Szczecin Jazz Festival.

Sylwester Ostrowski

A graduate of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland, Sylwester Ostrowski became the leading force in the founding of the Szczecin Academy of Art. As a music producer, he became the cultural advisor of to the mayor and City Hall in Szczecin. His break came when he was producing music for Piotr Wojtasik, who offered him a recording session with top American musicians including Newman T. Baker, Wayne Dockery, and Reggie Moore.

Sylwester Ostrowski is a rare case in the Polish artistic world. He successfully combines the role of music — jazz saxophonist with culture animation, including the creation of the Szczecin Jazz Festival. He has recorded with American jazz vocalist Deborah Brown and toured alongside genres like Bobby Watson, Wynton Marsalis and Keyon Harrold.

Sylwester builds cultural connections globally with jazz.

To date, he has three albums; the latest being In Our Own Way, where he takes on cultural exchange, bringing a fusion of American and Polish jazz, the classical music of Frederic Chopin, and traditional music of Poland and Japan. Sylwester was recently awarded the title of Honorary Ambassador of Szczecin City.

Communication Manager of Europe Jazz Network

Stefano Zucchiatti

Stefano Zucchiatti is the Communication Manager of Europe Jazz Network. He has a substantial experience in communication at the international level for non-profit organisations and networks. His main areas of expertise are brand management, digital communications and social media, events management and press relations. He studied Communication Sciences at the Padova University and has a Master in Communication for International Relations at IULM University in Milan.

Reykjavik Jazz Festival

Sunna Gunnlaugs

Sunna Gunnlaugs is a pianist and co-director of the Reykjavik Jazz Festival in Iceland since 2015. She is also on the board of EJN since 2018. Sunna organizes two concert series – “Freyjujazz" at the National Gallery of Iceland which is focused on creating opportunities for women in jazz, and "Jazz in Salurinn” at Salurinn in Kopavogur, where she invites international artists to perform acoustic solo concerts.

Musician, the Head of the Arkhangelsk-JAZZ production center

Tim Dorofeev

Tim Dorofeev has organized more than twenty festivals including The International Jazz Days in Arkhangelsk, Arkhangelsk-Blues, Jazz Workshop project and club. He is a band leader of the Art Quartet, which won the Quartets 4×4 television contest on the Culture channel in 2018. The band members of the Art Quartet have been playing together for more than 15 years having created their own unique and distinctive style over that time. The musical repertoire combines contemporary jazz, Russian folklore and Tim’s own music. The ensemble programme features famous Russian and foreign jazz musicians, folk bands and choirs, as well as contemporary dance and video art. The quartet worked with numerous world famous jazz musicians as partners: Anatoly Vapirov – sax (Bulgaria), Mike del Ferro – piano (Netherlands), Vladimir Tarasov – drums (Lithuania), Umezu Khojitoki – sax (Japan) and others.

Programm Director of Casa da Música

Fernando de Sousa

Fernando de Sousa began his activity in 1997 as an independent promoter. Since this year, he was involved on the organization and production of various cultural events and music festivals in Portugal, African Portuguese spoken countries and Brazil. Fernando has been invited to give conferences and participate at various panels around the world on music subjects mainly focused on lusophonie and brazilian music in Europe.

From 2004, is in charge of the programming of pop-rock, jazz and world music at Casa da Música Foundation where he currently continues to exercise these competences. The concept behind Casa da Música is promoting high quality performances of several genres of music, including classical and contemporary music since there are four resident groups under its direction (a symphonic orchestra, a baroque orchestra and an ensemble for contemporary music apart of two choirs).

Coordinator/administrator of Europe Jazz Network

Francesca Cerretani

Francesca Cerretani is in charge of managing the EJN virtual office; working with EJN project leaders on the activities’ administration, coordination and production; Board administration; assisting the Network Manager in the preparation of grant applications. From 2001 to 2013 Francesca was organising theatre and music events in Italy and worldwide.

Founder of Jazz Fest Sarajevo, co-curator of Ljubljana Jazz Festival

Edin Zubcevic

Business Magazine named him Art Manager of the year in 2000. He is the founder of Jazz Fest Sarajevo, international music festival. As founder and producer of label and agency Gramofon, he organized hundreds music and other events from chamber music concerts to big arena pop-rock shows and corporate events. Since 2001 he published and produced over 40 CDs, DVDs, and books, most of them released for Gramofon (founded 2003). In 2009 he started regional music event Xenophonia, and in 2012 regional educational program Music Meeting.

From 2001 until 2006 he was a jury member of the European Jazz Prize. From 2003 until 2008 he was a member of Board of directors of Open Society Fund Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was a guest lecturer at the Academy of Music in Sarajevo from 2014. Since 1987 he has been writing comments, reviews and essays about music in daily newspaper and magazines, as well as hosted hundreds of shows on various national and independent radio stations. He is also working as a freelance PR consultant (since 2000), artist manager (since 2000) and freelance writer for international magazines (since 2012). Since 2018 co-curator of Ljubljana Jazz Festival and editor-in-chief of NOMAD web portal.

Project manager of I-Jazz

Enrico Bettinello

Enrico Bettinello is a music and performing arts curator, writer and cultural manager based in Venezia (Italy). He is a member of the Board of Directors of Europe Jazz Network and project manager for I-Jazz, the association of Jazz Festivals in Italy.

As a curator, he collaborates with NovaraJazz (managing residencies and multi-disciplinary projects), Pro-Helvetia (as creator and artistic director of New Echoes series of concerts) , Palazzo Grassi/Punta della Dogana Museum, Venice Biennale and many more.

Enrico Bettinello is currently directing the European Institute of Design in Venice.

Key Event Director

Julia Mironchik

Having graduated from the Faculty of the directing of theatrical performances and festivities at Saint-Petersburg State Institute of Culture, Julia has been creating events, performances and theatrical shows as a director and scriptwriter since 2010. Her key projects include MegafonLive Festival 2015-2016 in 10 cities across Russia, National CRE Real Estate Awards Ceremony, ROSINFRA National Infrastructure Development Award and a whole range of cultural events, musical festivals, theater and fashion shows, musicals, conferences, awards ceremonies and other events for Russian and international companies.

Managing Director, Nasjonal jazzscene, President of Europe Jazz Network

Jan Ole Otnæs

His career as a jazz promoter started in 1969 when he presented Keith Jarrett Trio in his hometown. Jan Ole became the first director of Bodø Kulturhus a new – two venue performing space in Bodø in 1991. He was asked to take over as Artistic Director of Molde Int Jazz Festival in 2001, a position he had until August 2013, when he took over as managing director of Nasjonal Jazzscene – Victoria. Victoria is a 300 cap venue in Oslo presenting around 150 concerts per year, a variety of unestablished acts and nasjonal/ international artists like Chick Corea, Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Esperanza Spalding, John McLaughlin etc.

Cofounder and vice-president, L’Équipe Spectra, Festival International de Jazz de Montréal

André Ménard

André Ménard numbers among the most influential figures in the Quebec artistic community, having greatly contributed to the cultural life of Montreal. Working in the domain of live show and concert production since 1975, he founded L’Équipe Spectra with Alain Simard almost 40 years ago and remains vice-president of the company. He is also the cofounder of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal and, he oversaw the workings of Montréal venues Le Spectrum and Métropolis (MTELUS) for 25 years as Vice-President and Managing Director of concert halls for L’Équipe Spectra. From 1995 to 2015, he sat on the board of directors of dance company La La La Human Steps and has been a member of the board of the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership since its inception in 2003. Driven by his insatiable cultural curiosity, André Ménard travels to more than 300 artistic events every year throughout the world.