Jazzdor Strasbourg-Budapest Festival
25–28 March 2026
Opus Jazz Club

For more than three and a half decades, the Strasbourg-based Jazzdor Festival has been one of the most important events on the European jazz scene, both professionally and in terms of audience success. After Berlin, Budapest is the second city to host a special edition of the festival. From 25 to 28 March, the third special edition of the Jazzdor Festival in Budapest will take place at Opus Jazz Club, where the philosophy of French creative jazz meets the work of Hungarian and international artists associated with Budapest Music Center. The festival, realised as an international collaboration, features eight bands in four concerts.

On 25 March, the festival opens with Big Fish. Originally founded to celebrate the music of the great jazz composers and musicians of the 20th century, such as Paul Motian, Ornette Coleman, and Chris Lightcap, the quartet quickly took a more personal and original direction: each member adds their compositional touch to create music of depth and lightness. In the second half of the concert, the Transcendent Triptych trio uses early, classical, and folk music to recreate the concept of modern avant-garde jazz. Their repertoire aims to discover transcendent realms beyond the material nature of music, through the extension of fixed and spontaneous musical forms. In addition to their new pieces, the concert will feature material from their first album, to be released in April 2025 on BMC Records.

Wakan’s Being Dantès is a repertoire of compositions where obvious, familiar melodic lines navigate complex and unique structures. The program, to be heard live on 26 March, is inspired by the first part of Alexandre Dumas's novel: while imprisoned in the Château d'If, Edmond Dantès slowly transforms before being reborn as the Count of Monte Cristo. Taking the stage in the second part of the concert, T.I.M. offers a journey between shadow and light, acoustics and electronics. Folk songs, improvisation, variations on randomness, memory, and its degradation. What becomes of beauty when it disappears? What becomes of memory when the time comes to forget? At a time when we should be striving for degrowth, faced with the extinction of species and cultures, Tomorrow Is Minimalist.

Christophe Monniot has made a name for himself through his astonishing mastery of several instruments in the saxophone family and his ability to take musical cross-streets where the legacy of the great jazz innovators meets more European ways of improvising music. With this new quartet, playing on 27 March, he reconnects with the work of Keith Jarrett, Cannonball Adderley, and Dave Brubeck – from an individual perspective. Blending spoken word, electronic treatments, groove and free improvisation, Pascal Niggenkemper’s The Ocean Within Us – a Jazzdor production – combines the rhythmic intelligence of Mariá Portugal, the masked textures of Berlin keyboardist Liz Kosack, and the saxophone riffs of Athens-based Nicky Kokkoli.

Clément Janinet explores the connections between free improvisation, baroque music, popular and repetitive music with his new quartet, Garden of Silences: on 28 March, Monteverdi, Buxtehude and Dowland engage with Swedish Nyckelharpa, intense improvisation blends with microtonal music, and contemporary chamber music meets folk dances and songs from the oral tradition. For András Dés, jazz is lived democracy, a collective process built on trust, openness, and deep listening. Following the internationally acclaimed Unimportant Things, this Quartet returns in March 2026 with Decisions We Make, again on BMC Records. The program weaves composed material with open musical spaces, allowing spontaneity, risk, and playful interaction to unfold in real time. 

Tickets for the Jazzdor Strasbourg-Budapest Festival's concerts are available for 4400 HUF on the spot, online at bmc.jegy.hu, and at InterTicket Jegypont partners across Hungary.

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Jazzdor Strasbourg-Budapest | Big Fish (FR) | The Transcendent Triptych (HU/AT/DE)
March 25 Wed 20:00
Opus Jazz Club

Featuring:
Big Fish:
Léa Ciechelski – alto saxophone
Julien Soro – tenor and soprano saxophone
Gabriel Midon – double bass
Ariel Tessier – drums
The Transcendent Triptych:
Ávéd János – saxophone
David Six – piano
Tilo Weber – drums

Jazzdor Strasbourg-Budapest | Wakan (FR/KR) | T.I.M. (NO/FR)
March 26 Thu 20:00
Opus Jazz Club

Featuring:
Wakan:
Francesca Han – piano
Pierre Fenichel – double bass
Fred Pasqua – drums
T.I.M.:
Karoline Wallace – voice, tapes, electronics
Inger Hannisdal – Harbinger fiddle, voice
Sébastien Palis – piano, synths

Jazzdor Strasbourg-Budapest | Christophe Monniot Quartet (FR/CU) | The Ocean Within Us (GR/US/FR/DE/BR)
March 27 Fri 20:00
Opus Jazz Club

Featuring:
Christophe Monniot Quartet:
Christophe Monniot – alto and sopranino saxophone
Sophia Domancich – piano
Felipe Cabrera – double bass
Denis Charolles – drums
The Ocean Within Us:
Nicky Kokkoli – alto saxophone
Liz Kosack – keyboards
Pascal Niggenkemper – double bass
Mariá Portugal – drums

Jazzdor Strasbourg-Budapest | Garden of Silences (FR/NO/DE) | András Dés Quartet (AT/JP/HU)
March 28. Sat 20:00
Opus Jazz Club

Featuring:
Garden of Silences:
Clément Janinet – violin
Arve Henriksen – trumpet, voice, electronics
Ambre Vuillermoz – accordion
Robert Lucaciu – double bass
András Dés Quartet:
Martin Eberle – trumpet
Philipp Nykrin – piano
Kenji Herbert – guitar
András Dés – percussion

 

 

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