Dear IASJ-family,

Hope you all are doing great!

We are working hard to finalize the program of the week. The frame of the meeting is already set. We are waiting for the last student proposals to start forming the combos. Same with the call for presentations for the Ongoing Dialogues presentations. We hope you have a moment to read about the new concepts we would like to try out next June, during the 2023 IASJ Jazz Meeting.

We feel that now would be a good time to concentrate especially on questions concerning the cultural connections of jazz music, past and present, and how they affect pedagogic practices in jazz programs all over the world. Dr. Dana Hall’s presentation will be the starting point for the discussions in the Ongoing Dialogues. Our humble wish is that the presentations coming from you would deal with similar issues from different points of view. Another important topic that should continue from last year's meeting is ‘Jazz and Gender’. Please send Wouter Turkenburg your suggestions.

For the Teachers Concert: we know well that the teacher concert has a long tradition. It means a lot to play with your colleagues from all around the world and showing the students who you are. Having read the 2022 IASJ survey, we would like to try something else. The 2023 IASJ Jazz Meeting will not have a teacher concert as before. Instead, there will be a teacher group opening every jam session during the week. We’ll contact all of you teachers in March about this and ask about your willingness to play. Based on your responses, we’ll form the exquisite teacher groups to open the jam sessions. We are confident that this concept better connects the students and teachers.

As you may have read, we invited our Sibelius Academy Honorary Doctors to lead the student ensembles. This was partly due to our 40th anniversary. This is a perfect occasion for us to invite Dave Liebman, Tim Hagans, Anders Jormin and Aaron Goldberg to celebrate the 2023 IASJ Jazz Meeting with all of us. In addition to Dave, Tim, Anders and Aaron, our professor Jukkis Uotila will lead the ensembles as well. I hereby ask all participating teachers if you like to be co-leader. Let me or Wouter Turkenburg know if you would be interested in being a co-leader in one of the ensembles. At the end naturally the ensemble leaders will decide how they want to work with in their ensemble and if they would like to have a co-leader. Teaching combos has been a very meaningful part of these meetings to many of you. However, this concept aims also to have all the participating teachers in closer interaction during the Ongoing Dialogues and presentations.

The student audition will also be organized in a slightly different way. We’ll form preliminary line-ups for the six combos beforehand, and these combos will play in the auditions. After this, the ensemble leaders have a meeting and make the necessary changes, if needed.

We are planning to have an IASJ Research Session on the last day, Saturday the 1st of July. Of course, the IASJ Journal will be discussed, as well as the state of jazz research worldwide. More about that also during the spring.

For the updates on the accommodations, the hotel discount codes:
https://2023iasjhelsinki.com/how-can-i/book-a-hotel

On behalf of the 2023 IASJ Helsinki -team,
Jussi Kannaste

More info about the jazz department of the Sibelius Academy: https://www.uniarts.fi/en/units/department-of-jazz/