Top Event
For the first time, the new summer highlight “The Jazz Bridge” is building a bridge for jazz between Berlin and Brandenburg on the stunningly beautiful banks of the Havel. For fourteen evenings, the garden of Villa Schöningen opens up to the river. An open-air stage rises on the banks of the Havel, framed by the villa’s historic stonework and the silhouette of the Glienicke Bridge. In the long summer light, by the water, among old trees—concerts that can only take place in midsummer and only at this location. Over thirty concerts. Fourteen nights.
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Blick auf Glienicker Brücke, Potsdam
There is a special magic on the Havel in late July. The light lingers past ten, the water turns golden, and the air carries the slow tempo of a summer that is finally breathing. The Jazz Bridge Festival was created for this very moment.
NEA Jazz Masters & Grammy Winners + Berlin’s Up-and-Coming Scene
NEA Jazz Masters and Grammy winners share the stage with the most exciting young voices of the Berlin scene.
From Ledisi to Eliane Elias, Tigran Hamasyan, from Dee Dee Bridgewater to the up-and-coming talents of the JIB—the lineup is a declaration of love for music.
Highlights:
Till Brönner, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Eliane Elias, Tigran Hamasyan, Ledisi, Al Di Meola, Ute Lemper, Veronica Swift, The Bad Plus, Ida Nielsen, Moses Yoofee, Samara Joy, Dhafer Youssef, Ute Lemper, and many more.
Nightly jam sessions, hosted by Uri Gincel
The festival doesn’t end when the sun goes down. Every night, after the concerts end, the castle opens its doors for an open jam session—hosted by Berlin’s jazz superstar Uri Gincel on piano.
Artists from the evening program regularly drop by, jam along, and trade choruses. These are unforgettable moments after midnight—world-class musicians up close in a historic castle.
The festival’s name comes from Sonny Rollins’ 1962 album *The Bridge*—recorded after his famous sabbatical, during which he played alone on the Williamsburg Bridge in New York.
Like Rollins, this festival believes: At the bridge, music finds its truth. Between tradition and renewal, between continents and generations, between the villa and the water.
- PRESENTED BY - Zig Zag Jazz Club & Ella Radio
The legendary Zig Zag Jazz Club—three-time winner of the Applaus Award for Germany’s best jazz club—and Ella Radio, the new station for jazz, soul, and blues in Berlin and Brandenburg, jointly present the Jazz Bridge Festival. Two brands, one promise: hand-picked music of world-class caliber, right on the water.
