The International Jazz Festival Münster is one of the major cultural events in a city reknown for diverse and high quality culture. Every year, the department of culture, along with the partners and sponsors of the festival, presents this highly popular weekend long musical event. At the beginning of January the city becomes a lively center of international jazz for a weekend.
Chick Corea, Don Cherry, Orette Coleman, Carla Bley, John McLaughlin, Chet Baker, James "Blood" Ulmer, Michel Petrucciani and Jacky Terrasson are just some of the stars over the years who have performed live at the jazz festival and helping to put Münster's name on the international jazz roster. An emphasis on modern jazz sets the stage for a festival that offers the listener an exciting mix of different styles and musical forms – purely instrumental works, vocal virtuosity along with accustical surprise, gives the jazz festival in Münster its own special quality. With its focus on European jazz, the Münster festival offers a mixture of well known names, exciting newcomers and experimental accustical projects. In the last years the festival has emerged as one of the most potent festivals for the international who is who of unknown jazz.
Home of the festival is the Theater Muenster where all concerts take place. Münster's festival lets its audience experience international jazz close-up, a relaxed atmosphere on and back stage gives each visitor the unique feeling of really being a part of it. In every sense the festival is a unique musical experience.
Well known for its high quality and the great time to experience there, the festival in the past years has been sold out, even before all the names of the artists parti-cipating had been announced. Every two years, 4,000 visitors fill the house. In the even years, a „Shortcut"-version of the International Jazz Festival with 1,000 visitors takes place.
With a special bed and breakfast offer, you can spend two nights in the official festival hotel. Included in the first class offer is a VIP ticket which allows you to access all press conferences. Besides this, the Tourist Information Center offers a large variety of services which allows you to make the very most of your visit to the city.
Münster welcomes the year 2025 with the three-day edition of the International Jazz Festival: from Friday, January 3rd to Sunday, January 5th, 2025 there will be jazz again in the two auditoriums of Theater Münster!
Related articles:
Artistic Director: Fritz Schmücker
In the early years of the International Jazz Festival Münster, first Frank Schraven (1979-1981) and then the Vorstand Jazzclub Münster e.V. (1982-1984) were in charge of the program. Fritz Schmücker filled the position of the artistic director for the first time in 1985. Initially, he applied himself to this task together with Rainer Holtmann, Frank Schraven, and Hartmut Schmitz (1985). The latter was of the party during the years 1986 to 1999 as well. Since 2000, Fritz Schmücker is the sole artistic director of the festival.