BERGAMO JAZZ 2026
Artistic Direction by Joe Lovano
Preview 47th edition
March 19-22, 2026
– Concerts at Teatro Donizetti and Teatro Sociale –
“Setting The Pace:
Miles & Trane 100th Celebration!
Setting The Pace
, dictating the pace or setting the pace. Joe Lovano, for the third time Artistic Director of Bergamo Jazz, announces the title and the first part of the program of the 2026 edition of the Festival, which will take place March 19-22 in the wake of an extraordinary celebration: the centennial anniversary of the birth of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, seminal and iconic figures in African American music. Organized by Fondazione Teatro Donizetti, with the support of the City of Bergamo, MiC-Ministry of Culture and private sponsors, the Festival will reach its 47th edition with a packed program of concerts at Teatro Donizetti, Teatro Sociale and other venues around the city, which will once again come alive with the myriad sounds of a music that has long put down firm roots in Bergamo.
“In life, the arts, the sciences, sports and business, there have been people and collective bodies that have dictated the pace, the rhythm, with passion and love, representing a model for generations. Bergamo Jazz has inspired other jazz festivals over the years to achieve a high standard of excellence in programming and organization, dictating the pace to follow,” specifies Joe Lovano in introducing Bergamo Jazz 2026. “As musicians we are constantly studying and developing to find our voice. This path is fueled by the sounds and spirit of the masters. Those who gave and give us the confidence and inspiration to reach today’s high standards. The artists performing at Bergamo Jazz Festival 2026 are all “setting the pace” to celebrate the legacy of Miles and Trane in their centennial year.”
Unfailingly faithful to the Festival’s natural international vision, the 2026 edition of Bergamo Jazz will therefore be, as always, a window wide open on the composite scene of an expressive universe that continues to show signs of vitality in its being an ideal meeting point between different musics and cultures, between tradition and modernity. To be emphasized, once again, is the large representation of women, now more than ever in the spotlight with musicians and composers of absolute value.
While numerous initiatives carried out in collaboration with as many realities in the area are being finalized, including meetings with schools curated by CDpM and the “Scintille di Jazz” section curated by Tino Tracanna and dedicated to young talents, the concert program at Teatro Donizetti and Teatro Sociale is already finalized in detail, so that the season ticket campaign and ticket sales can begin. Indeed, old subscribers will be able to renew from December 3 to 20, 2025 (change seats from January 8 to 10, 2026), with right of first refusal for concerts at the Sociale. New subscriptions will then be available from January 14, 2026, with the possibility of purchasing Sociale tickets as well, while tickets for individual evenings at the Donizetti will go on sale from January 28.
Jazz at Donizetti
On Friday, March 20, the first of three subscription evenings at the Donizetti Theater, starting at 8:30 p.m., beloved by both Bergamascans and those from all over Italy and beyond, will be opened by the duo formed by double bass ace Dave Holland and Lionel Loueke, one of the most innovative guitarists to appear on the jazz scene in recent decades. The duo released the album United in 2024, a record that transcends mere collaboration by embodying the dialogue between the sensibilities of two musicians with different backgrounds, who are able to listen to each other and blend their respective instrumental voices. Holland and Loueke will serve as “openers” for the concert by Steve Coleman and his Five Elements: the Chicago saxophonist will return to the Donizetti stage exactly 20 years after his previous performance to offer his well-rehearsed blend of visionary funk in which the most imaginative improvisation is interpenetrated with rigorous compositional structures.
The next evening, Bergamo Jazz will offer for listening one of the groups of the moment, Bad Plus, in a special edition that will feature its two founding members, double bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King, joined by saxophonist Chris Potter and pianist Craig Taborn, or two other giants of contemporary jazz in their respective instrumental specificities. Central to the quartet’s music will be compositions written by Keith Jarrett for his glorious American Quartet, the one in which the Allentown pianist dialogued with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. A group that has rightly gone down in history for its expressive force and whose worthy heirs the Bad Plus stand to be, taking those liberties that characterize every thoroughbred jazz musician.
This will be followed by a salute to the return of Lakecia Benjamin, who will again be a guest of Bergamo Jazz after her highly successful participation in the festival in 2023. The New York saxophonist will present her new album, on the strength of her five Grammy nominations in a short time.
The third and final evening of Bergamo Jazz 2026 at Teatro Donizetti will be entirely hinged on the special project conceived by Joe Lovano himself to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. A true dream band: one cannot define otherwise the artistic cast specially selected by the famous saxophonist, whose direction will give life to different instrumental combinations and collective moments, leveraging expressive affinities, long artistic acquaintances, great mutual esteem. On trumpet will be Avishai Cohen, now long one of the leading names in the ECM catalog, a highly refined soloist and poetically Miles’ son. On tenor sax, in addition to Lovano himself, another authority on the instrument,
Jazz at the Teatro Sociale
Also in 2026 there will be two appointments at the Teatro Sociale in Città Alta, the first of which, on the evening of Thursday, March 19 (8:30 p.m.,) will first propose the new trio of pianist Franco D’Andrea, excellence of jazz made in Italy, who will have at his side two exceptional companions of adventure such as double bassist Gabriele Evangelista, also a regular partner of Enrico Rava and Stefano Bollani, and drummer Roberto Gatto, a veteran of endless musical battles to the sound of cymbals and drums. From blues to early jazz, to its more advanced forms and pure invention, D’Andrea, Evangelista and Gatto recover from the origins of jazz a bluesy feeling that permeates its poetics to give life to a free, joyful and extremely communicative music.
The same evening will feature the quartet of Chilean saxophonist Melissa Aldana, whose brilliant technical background is well balanced by an increasingly personal stylistic figure, daughter of Sonny Rollins but also of Wayne Shorter, as revealed by her recent album Echoes Of The Inner Prophet.
On Sunday 22 (at 5 p.m.) Bergamo Jazz 2026 will open to the sophisticated mix of pop and jazz by Simona Molinari and her show “La Donna è Mobile,” a musical and theatrical journey that tells the female figure through music and its infinite nuances, inspired by Verdi’s iconic aria. On stage, alongside the singer, an all-female band composed of musicians with vast experience in various musical fields: saxophonist and flutist Chiara Lucchini, pianist Sade Mangiaracina, bassist Elisabetta Pasquale and drummer Francesca Remigi. Together they will all reinterpret an eclectic repertoire ranging from opera to contemporary sounds, through the elegance of Lucio Dalla and the intense atmospheres of Milly, to the energy of Billie Eilish.
As already mentioned, the Bergamo Jazz 2026 program will be complemented by events hosted, even in the morning and late into the evening, in other theaters, museums and venues, bringing jazz music into contact with the fabric of the city, infecting it with its spirit of adventure, with its universal message of peace and dialogue between different peoples. A timely and necessary message especially in complex times such as the ones we are living.
