AND THE WINNER OF B-JAZZ 2024 IS…

In cooperation with Jazz in ‘t Park, Muziekmozaïek organized the 44rd edition of the final of B-Jazz International Contest 2024 from September 5 to 7. In Ghent’s Voorhavenpark, the numerous audience present could enjoy six magnificent concerts together with the jury.

The six participating bands were successively TB Project (Belgium), Giulio Ottanelli Quartet (Italy/France), Tomer Cohen Trio (Belgium/Israel), ELLIOT (the Netherlands), Igor Senderov Quartet (Israel/Germany/Italy) and Opening Theory (Romania).

With seven nationalities on stage, the international character of this competition for young jazz musicians was already guaranteed and the performances were all of high quality. Based on what we heard and saw, the jazz future looks bright.

After the performance of the sixth finalist on Saturday night, the international jury of experts retreated to deliberate, which was not an easy task given the high level of all participants. They finally came to the decision that the winner of B-Jazz 2024, the winner of the ‘Grand Prix Albert Michiels’ is the group Igor Senderov Quartet.

This trio consists of Igor Senderov (altosaxophone), Giuseppe Sacchi (piano), Vincenzo Quirico (doublebass) en Daniel Besthorn (drums).

Some quotes from the judges’ report:

Fantastic musicians who create a good set and play well together.

Good musical ideas.

Well-organised band with a good bandleader.

Nice musical articulation.

They took the audience into their story.

All soloists keep on developing their musical ideas and motives in such a clear and repeated way that this gives possibility for interplay within the group.

 Jury: Alexander Boerner (Duitsland/Nederland), Ioan Big (Roemenië), Claudio Mastracci (Italië),Filip Verneert (België), Aygül Gunaltay (België/Turkije), Maarten Weyler (België)

By winning the ‘Grote Prijs’, Igor Senderov Quartet can perform in Spain, Italy, Romania, the Netherlands and, of course, Belgium in the coming months. When exactly they will be playing where can be followed via this website and the B-Jazz facebook page (facebook.com/bjazzinternationalcontest).

Thanks to our partners Getxo Jazz (Spain), Saint Louis College of Music (Italy), Brașov Jazz and Blues Festival (Romania), Conservatorium Maastricht (Netherlands), De Jazzontspooring (Belgium), Leuven Jazz (Belgium), Rataplan (Belgium) and Jazz in ‘t Park (Belgium).

And not to forget our fantastic volunteers. Thank you and until the next edition!