Drummer Philippos Thönes is awarded the 25th Jazz Nachwuchspreis of the city of Leipzig and opens this year's festival with the band Church of Jupiter. Afterwards: Jakob Bro Trio.

What a talent! Someone drums with the whole history of jazz behind him, at the same time located in the here and now, urgent, current. Philippos Thönes follows the tradition of African-American music, and he has understood that you can only do justice to it if you relate it to the reality of your own life - politically, socially, culturally. 

Philippos Thönes, born in Bergisch Gladbach, came into early contact with jazz through his father, musician and professor of jazz drumset, and with classical and traditional Greek music through his mother, pianist and teacher. Since 2015 he studied in Leipzig, among others with Heinrich Köbberling and Johannes Enders. Initially, he oriented himself as a percussionist to already established players such as Philipp Scholz, Max Stadtfeld, Eva Klesse, Philip Theurer, Jan Roth and Dominique Ehlert. Meanwhile, Philippos Thönes himself is part of the lively Leipzig music scene. In May of this year, he gave his bachelor's degree concert. On the day of the prize winners' concert, September 30, 2021, he will celebrate his 27th birthday. 

Philippos Thönes throws himself with verve into the work with the most diverse ensembles. He vitalizes small, often alternative venues and establishes networks. The band Church of Jupiter forms something like the epicenter of his activities - high-energy music with a view to global aspects, jazz at the interface between art and politics. Just how strongly he has set his antennas on world reception was also demonstrated at this year's Leipzig MusikZeit as a member of a project around Ulrich Hübner and Lancei Dioubate, together with West African musicians following the tradition of the griots. For Thönes, music is not an academic matter, but an expression of communication, interaction, emotion and spirituality. 

In 2021, the Jazz Nachwuchspreis of the city of Leipzig will be awarded for the 25th time with the support of the Marion Ermer Foundation. This time, the jury, of which I have been a member from the very beginning, included the drummer Eva Klesse, herself a former prize winner, and the trombonist Nils Wogram. A lot has been achieved with the prize as a flanking productive force of the Leipzig jazz scene. If I could wish for something, it would be that we could honor even more female-read award winners in the future. So far we have had four out of twenty-five, which is at least something, but too few. The impetus can only come from the scene itself. With Eva Klesse at the head of the jury in the future, a signal will also be set for this.