In the last year of the second decade of two thousand, LeipJAZZig opens the local jazz festival circuit with its quarter-century anniversary. It is extremely gratifying to be able to experience how seasoned LeipJAZZig musicians interact with the next generation of jazz musicians. The opening evening, on which the LeipJAZZig orchestra, chamber orchestra 'artentfaltung' and LeipJAZZig protagonists will premiere Stephan König's work "Inner Orbit", will do justice to the anniversary mode. Recurring themes of human life are staged like inner orbits analogous to the orbits of planets. This will be followed by the royal chamber music arrangement of Gustav Holt's "The Planets". The second showpiece band from the big band stronghold of Leipzig, Spielvereinigung Sued, under the direction of Malte Schiller and with Sebastian Studnitzky on horn, will perform two standard-setting works from the collaboration between Gil Evans and Miles Davis: "Porgy and Bess & Miles Ahead". Classically trained, absorbed by Oscar Peterson, freely trained by Beirach and Wollny, compositionally gifted and pianistically sensitive - Olga Reznichenko manifests an independent sound language with the excellent Heigenhuber/Stadtfeld at her side. Athina Kontou & Band explore their identity as a jazzy double bass player with Greek roots, while Stephan König compiles his personal songbook from the world of contemporary music on the grand piano. The nonet Children Of The Night pays tribute to the arrangers of the former Radio Bigband Leipzig Eberhard Weise and Henry Walther with their compositions/arrangements as well as timeless jazz classics and concludes the festival with a summary: The beginning of spring can sound so beautiful! LeipJAZZig....Jazz....Yes..!

LeipJAZZig-Orkester - Stephan König (ltg, p, comp, arrangement), Thomas Prokein (v), Christoph Schenker (vc), Frank Nowicky (as, cl, fl), Michael Arnold (as, cl), Johannes Moritz (as, cl) Michael Breitenbach (as), Frank Bartsch (tp), Gundolf Nandico (cor), Berns Angerhöfer (tb), Frank Kaiser (g), Kay Kalytta (vb, perc), Stephan Weiser (b), Wieland Götze (dr)

Chamber orchestra "Artentfaltung" - Kerstin Friese (v), Martina Pachmann (v), Anna Maria Kronfeld (v), Adriana Blahunka (v), Ekkehard Holzhausen (v), Angela Hodgson (v), Matthias Schäfer (v), Cora Schwanebeck (br)
Ulrike Strobel (vc), Alejandro Barria (vc), Norbert Stark (kb),
Babett Niclas (harp), Annett Müller (fl), Jürgen Dietze (ob), Axel Andrae (fg), Jochen Pleß (hrn)