Review: IASJ Meeting in New York 20^th -26^th June, 2022

The IASJ Meeting (International Association of Schools of Jazz) is an annual jazz meeting of international music colleges, which aims to promote exchange between jazz students and teachers from all over the world and to strengthen networking between the different colleges in this field.

This year's meeting of the IASJ took place from Monday 20^th to Sunday 26^th June and was hosted by the New School in Manhattan, New York. This year, Prof. Martin Zenker and Prof. Dr. Andreas Kissenbeck as well as the two students Theodor Kollross and Luis Burger participated in the meeting from the HMTM side.

This year's meeting was again a great success with some highlights, as the participants report below:

"We (Luis Burger and Theo Kollross) had the privilege to attend this year's IASJ meeting in New York together with our teachers Andreas Kissenbeck and Martin Zenker. We arrived on 20^th June and were welcomed at the New School. At the audition we played standards together and got to know each other musically. After that we were divided into fixed combos in which we rehearsed every day for the rest of the week under the direction of our teacher Matan Chapnizky from Israel (Rimon School of Music). He always brought a lot of energy to the rehearsals and created a good atmosphere. We rehearsed almost exclusively original compositions of the band members. In addition to the work with the band, there were also numerous workshops and lectures, among others, by Dave Liebman and Reggie Workman. In the evenings, the band met at jam sessions or concerts in New York, including Smalls Jazzclub, Blue Note, Village Vanguard, Smokes, etc. At the end of the week, there was a final concert where all the combos performed their program." - Theo Kollross

"On Tuesday morning, Theo Kollross and Luis Burger auditioned for the division of the combos. They were both assigned to a top-notch ensemble that was augmented by a French trumpet player, a Mannheim bass player, and a U.S. percussionist. That same evening, Zenker and I performed at the teachers’ concert. The week was characterized by intensive ensemble work, which was supplemented by master classes and various lectures. A special highlight was a talk by saxophonist David Liebman and bassist Reggie Workman about their collaborations with Miles Davis and John Coltrane, among others. The week ended with two concert evenings, where all six combos presented their own compositions and arrangements they had worked on during the week." - Prof. Dr. Andreas Kissenbeck