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“Master Klass” holds “OKeshkin Jazz”
25 May 2010
On 22nd and 23rd May the first International Children Jazz Festival “OKeshkin Jazz” was held at the Culture and Education Centre “Master Klass”.
The new festival was introduced by the Culture and Education Centre “Master Klass”, Oleksiy Kogan and the production centre «Jazz in Kiev».
During the two festival days the metropolitan audience had the opportunity to see nearly 20 young musicians: both soloists and true children’s jazz groups. Moreover, these were not only Kyivites but also people from Odesa and many other countries.
Special guests to the festival helped the future jazz stars to gain new experience. Among them were the New York jazz pianist Misha Tsyganov, already known to the audience due to his participation in the festival “Jazz in Kiev 2008” as a member of “United Quintet”, and a frequent guest to Ukraine, Polish drummer Krzysztof Zawadzki.
The appearance of the children’s jazz festival in Kyiv is of current interest as the new generation of jazz musicians has almost no opportunity to perform before a large audience. Only three Kyiv jazz festivals provide the jazzmen with a stage - “Yednist”, “Winter jazz meetings sacred to the memory of Yevheniy Dergunov” and “Vladimir Simonenko memorial evening”. However, a large number of adult participants prevent the children from feeling at ease whilst being the centre of attention. Moreover, children from other cities, and indeed, other countries, do not come here very often. A fine international festival “Atlant-M” that used to be held annually at Art-club “44”, and proved to be really good (and not only among Ukrainian audiences), has not been held for several years. The organizers of “OKeshkin Jazz” do not want to step into their shoes. The main task of the new jazz festival is to give young musicians the opportunity to perform on the big stage, to talk and play with the professionals and to feel part of a big jazz holiday.
Artistic director and host of the festival “OKeshkin Jazz” Oleksiy Kogan did not let the audience become bored in the breaks between the performances of the young artists, and the young artists themselves surprised the spectators again and again – they demonstrated technically unexpectedly gifted compositions for their age, and presented adult music with a childish sincerity and spirit!
