Ukrainian Spring – Tracing Ukraine

Jazz as resilience

Benjamin Schmid Jazz-Quartet performs his acclaimed program Gypsy and Groove, which blends jazz improvisations on both classical music and Ukrainian folk melodies. Rooted in the shared experiences of oppressed people, jazz and Ukrainian folk music come together to create an expression of cultural resilience and identity.

The title Tracing Ukraine indirectly expresses the festival's overall theme of Ukraine's place in Europe. Benjamin Schmid Jazz Quartet's interpretations and relaxed interactions impress as always with their precision, joy of playing and spontaneity. Since his debut in 1986 at the Salzburg Festival as Yehudi Menuhin's solo partner, Benjamin Schmid has developed into one of the most important violinists of our time.

Since his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Sir Yehudi Menuhin's solo partner in 1986, Benjamin Schmid's Benjamin Schmid has developed into one of the most important violinists of our time with his intensive concert activity, currently around 3000 live concerts. The first prize in the Carl Flesch Competition in London in 1992, where he also won the Mozart, Beethoven and audience prizes, together with further competition prizes, marked the international breakthrough for the Austrian Benjamin Schmid from Vienna. Since then he has appeared on the world's major stages with renowned orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Leipzig Gewandthausorchester and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich.

Benjamin Schmid is a professor and mentor to his students at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, where he was awarded the International Prize for Art and Culture. He has also been a professor at the University of Art in Bern. He gives master classes all over the world and serves as jury president of the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg and the Leopold Mozart Competition Augsburg.

In cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute in Sweden and the Embassy of Austria.