Description

Warm-up Performance: Chun (Pianist) X Jonath (Jazz Enthusiast)

Guests:

Mr. Chan Kwong Yan (Independent Musician, Graffiti Artist, Researcher of Esoteric Studies)

Professor Charles Tsui (Economist, Jazz Enthusiast)

Author and Moderator: Wu Jianxi X Mak Suen Zi

Language: Cantonese

Content: Introduction to the new book, 《A Humanities Journey of Jazz Festival: A Creative Spirit Map of Music Festival from the Perspective of Fans, Musicians, Organizers, and Cultural Management》, which serves as a starting point to invite guests from diverse fields to share their insights on various aspects of jazz culture. The discussion will further explore cultural differences around the world, interpreting jazz in relation to deep government programs, international relations, financial economics, cinematic symbols, spiritual audio codes, genetic inheritance as recorded in the Bible, African witchcraft, ancient Egyptian mysticism, black Freemasonry, and more.

Early bird book pre-orders through the following link will receive a special gift - an exclusive travel notebook~

https://forms.gle/EU31wBXiLfJU6XXq6

To be released consecutively in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore in January 2026.

Have you ever wondered how the people in charge of jazz festivals define success? How did they start coordinating these events? With frequent encounters with musicians and enigmatic jazz players, are they jazz aficionados themselves?

The book title, "Jazz Festival" clearly indicates that it is a book about jazz music, culture, and art. However, it is not just an administrative reference book. Written like a travelogue that explores local cultures through jazz festivals around the world, it is named "A Humanities Journey" to emphasize a human-centric approach to art and culture, telling stories about people, caring for their hearts, and even contemplating life itself.

The content of this book originates from the author's graduation thesis, "How do organizers evaluate whether a jazz festival has been successful?", written while studying Music Management in Berlin, Germany in 2023, along with reflections on the people, events, and cultural shocks encountered during that time abroad. The author deeply believes that the experiences and information within are valuable to the music and arts industries, and thus wishes to share the research findings through this journey log, including the English thesis in the publication.

The research topic of the thesis is "What is a successful jazz festival from the organizer's perspective", but how is "success" defined? On this journey, the author met nine individuals with different "attributes" (including founders and producers of nine jazz festivals in Europe and Asia: Jazzfest München, Jazzfest Berlin, Jazzfestival Saalfelden, Inntöne Jazzfestival, Jazzaar, Festival da Jazz, Montreux Jazz Festival in China, Taipei Jazz Big Band Carnival, and Macau Jazz Week), each embodying their unique definition of success, which also reflects their diverse definitions of life, weaving together distinct narrative threads.

The Hong Kong Arts Development Council supports freedom of artistic expression. The content of this program does not reflect the views of the Council.