EUROPE JAZZ NETWORK

As the only representative from Serbia, the Belgrade Jazz Festival has been a member of the prominent international jazz family – Europe Jazz Network, for eight years. The association has 183 members from 34 countries (festivals, clubs and concert halls, independent promoters and national organizations) dealing with production, promotion and support of music, contemporary jazz and improvisations in music with an exclusively European dimension.. The mission of EJN is to encourage, promote and support the development of the creative music sector in Europe and to create opportunities for artists, organizers and audiences from different countries to meet and communicate.

The Belgrade Jazz Festival management actively participates in the regular activities of the EJN, exchanging creative ideas with colleagues from other countries. In 2015, the Festival's Program Manager Dragan Ambrozić took part in the panel discussion Focus on South-East Europe during the EJN annual conference in Budapest. His deputy and public relations manager, Milica Ševarlić, took part in the Staff Exchange program of EJN in 2017. For ten days, she was part of the team of the prestigious international event Jazzfest Saalfelden in Austria and shared professional experiences, ideas and practices with her colleagues. Ševarlić and Ambrozić also participated in annual conferences in Ljubljana (2017), Lisbon (2018) and Novara (2019). Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 conference was not held, but delegates gathered online and held an election assembly, as well as several virtual panel sessions, and last year the annual meeting was held in the Estonian capital, Tallinn. This year, a new conference of a slightly smaller format and a narrower thematic focus, called "Beyond Europe", was launched. The focus was on the Balkan region, the local organizer was Jazz Fest Sarajevo, and the delegates of the Belgrade Jazz Festival were artistic director Vojislav Pantić and Milica Ševarlić, who was also the program host. Dragan Ambrozić represented the festival at the annual EJN conference 2022, hosted by the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, and A to JazZ Festival. Staff Exchange programu EJN. Tokom deset dana, bila je deo tima ugledne međunarodne manifestacije Jazzfest Saalfelden u Austriji, i sa svojim kolegama razmenila profesionalna iskustva, ideje i prakse. Ševarlić i Ambrozić učestvovali su potom i na godišnjim konferencijama u Ljubljani (2017), Lisabonu (2018) i Novari (2019). Zbog pandemije koronavirusa konferencija 2020. godine nije održana, ali su se delegati okupili na internetu i održali izbornu skupštinu, kao i nekoliko virtuelnih panel-sesija, a prošle godine godišnji skup je održan u estonskoj prestonici Talinu. Ove godine pokrenuta je i nova konferencija nešto manjeg formata i užeg tematskog usmerenja, pod nazivom „Beyond Europe“. Fokus je bio na regionu Balkana, lokalni organizator je bio Jazz Fest Sarajevo, a delegati Beogradskog džez festivala bili su umetnički direktor Vojislav Pantić i Milica Ševarlić, koja je bila i konferansje programa. Dragan Ambrozić predstavljao je festival na godišnjoj EJN konferenciji 2022, čiji domaćin je  bila prestonica Bugarske, Sofija i A to JazZ Festival.

The Belgrade Jazz Festival proudly promotes the European jazz sensibility, and the development of cooperation with foreign colleagues through the EJN network brings insight into the Old Continent's current jazz trends through numerous conferences, seminars and showcase programs leading to the selection and presentation of several outstanding artistic discoveries to the local audience. showcase programe sa kojih smo tokom prethodnih godina selektovali i domaćoj publici predstavili nekolicinu izvanrednih umetničkih otkrića.

Europe Jazz Conference 2019 / Novara, Italy
Emanuele Meschini NovaraJazz