06/05/2026
It was a magical jazzahead!, and the whole jazz community in Sweden is thankful for the trust from the centrepiece of the global jazz world to team up with us. This was a collaboration fuelled with passion and love for jazz. Thank you Sybille Kornitschky, Jakob Fraisse, Götz Bühler and everybody else in the jazzahead! team.
Musikcentrum is also extremely happy to be part of the consortium running the whole event, led by powerhouse Maria Rylander from Knutpunkt/Gothenburg Artist Center together with Loredana Franza, Anneli Strömgvist, Carina Östlund from the Swedish Embassy and the other partners Export Music Sweden, STIM, Skap and Svensk Jazz. This would not have been possible without the generous financial support from the consortium, but also from the Swedish Arts Council, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Svenska institutet, Gavatin Foundation and IKEA. A special regional Clubnight happened in close collaboration with Musik i Syd, Musik Hallandia, Norrbottensmusiken and Kulturförvaltningen Västra Götalandsregionen.
BUT we are a little extra proud of the projects and artists connected to Musikcentrum Öst, so here comes some bragging. We are not a large organisation, but there are few actors in Sweden that can compete with our long-term work for niche genre artists of absolute world class. And this year we had a stellar group of artists to present, and we can assure you that all of them are ready to travel, so get in touch with us for any booking interest and we will make sure to follow up.
Out of the 8 artists in the official selection, 5 are members of Musikcentrum Öst and, with not-so-humble pride and a shoutout to all of our top-performing artists: Lina Langendorf United, BITOI, Daniel Karlsson Trio, Britta Virves Trio and Hederosgruppen.
On top of this, we had wonderful artists in the Clubnight programme, and they sure made themselves heard: Emil Brandqvist Trio, Tomas JanzonTrio, Svante Söderqvist both solo and with his quartet project The Rocket, Karin Hammar Fab 4, Sara Aldén and, last but not least, Elsa Nilsson, based in NYC. Add to this all the other exceptional Swedish artists performing at jazzahead!, and the Swedish presence was immense. Full list here: https://www.musikcentrumost.se/sweden-jazzahead-2026
Musikcentrum Öst has executed large international projects over the years, and we want to showcase how grateful we are to have been part of Keychange from the start. We have been able to lean on the growing project and network in our work for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and now also Accessibility through Keychange Leaders. This perspective is always present in our work, and participation in jazzahead! is no exception. It is in our backbone and part of everything we do.
Since the full-scale invasion, Musikcentrum Öst has also worked in close contact with the Ukrainian music scene. We ran a residency in Sweden for displaced Ukrainian artists in collaboration with our sister organisation MCV - Musikcentrum Väst and, from 2024, created the extensive training and network project Resonate UA for talented Ukrainian jazz, folk and world artists, music managers and agents supported by Svenska institutet
In Bremen we had the amazing artists Oleksandr Mashovets, Oleksandr Malyshev, Sasha Seleznov, Artem Selikhanovich and Yuliya Roma. Returning from last year’s successful participation were also Lyudmyla Shekera and Olesia Levytska, coming back to deepen their careers. We cannot express enough the joy of working with such brilliant people and in collaboration with the powerhouse and Head of Music at Ukrainian Institute - Український інститут, Mariana Bondarenko.
More info about RUA here:
https://www.musikcentrumost.se/rua-jazzahead-26
A huge thanks to two of the best photographers we know:
Peter Bothén photos 1–11
Arkady Mitnik photos 12–18
See you all next year!
Mia, Ragnar and Kim
