Sebastian writes:

The Galway Jazz Festival 2018, which will present over 120 musicians from 12 countries in more than 60 events across the city between 4 and 7 October, has announced its first artists. Two programming strands emerge: a dual focus on the UK and on Germany.

The UK programming strand

Festival director Ellen Cranitch explains the thinking behind the UK strand: “Nobody knows what’s going to happen with Brexit – it could be that UK artists will need visas to come to Ireland in the very near future, we just don’t know. We want to put a bit of a spotlight on what this may mean for the Arts in general, and music in particular. We also want to bring peoples attention to the burgeoning UK jazz scene, something that sometimes gets overlooked in favour of more exotic European scenes.”

Liane Carroll,
Ashley Henry
World Service Project
Huw Warren
and from beyond the jazz scene:
Kavus Torabi (website) in a double act with DJ Steve Davis
Poppy Ackroyd

The German programming strand

The festival’s spokesman comments: “The German angle is less political and more geographical – each year we pick a country/region and thread together a few acts that present a cross section. The last couple of years was Scandanavian based, and this year (in association with the Goethe Institut) we present a cross section of German jazz.”

Concerts by three artists from the German scene were announced, also demonstrating that the festival maintains a strong line on gender-balanced programming,

Pianist Julia Hulsmann with her trio
Jazz harpist Kathrin Pechlof and her trio
Saxophonist Anna-Lena Schnabel making her Irish debut


A further announcement with other International artists from Europe and Africa, and also Irish artists will be made in early August

LINK: Details and ticket information on the FESTIVAL’S WEBSITE