Jazz Showcase

Veronika Harcsa - chairperson

singer, songwriter

She graduated from the vocal jazz faculty of the Ferenc Liszt College of Music Budapest and earned her Master’s degree from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She has performed in 40 countries around the world, and, besides releasing ten solo albums, has participated in numerous collaborations. Although she writes her songs in English, she has also dedicated two albums to 20th century Hungarian poetry. She puts her versatile creativity to work in many genres, regularly working with classical musicians, as well as participating in experimental projects and theatrical productions. She has run her own programme venue at the Valley of Arts Festival since 2014.

Balázs Bágyi

jazz drummer, composer, music educator and producer, president of the Hungarian Jazz Federation

The jazz drummer is a much sought-after performer on both the Hungarian and international jazz scenes. The Balázs Bágyi New Quartet, which bears his name and performs Balázs's own music, has grown into one of Hungarian jazz's most successful groups, and regularly plays concerts both at home and abroad. In addition to his professional performance career, Balázs is also a mentor for the Hungarian National Cultural Fund's Conquest of Sound Programme and a member of the board of trustees of the Dezső Lakatos Ablakos Performing Arts Jazz Scholarship. He has also been president of the Hungarian Jazz Federation since 2013.

Károly Binder

jazz pianist, composer, professor of the Jazz Department at the Liszt Academy

The Ferenc Erkel Award-winning pianist has written more than 398 musical works for the prepared piano, piano, orchestra and for percussion and orchestra. He has also written music for numerous films, plays and radio dramas. He has released 79 records to date. Since the year 2000, he has been a professor and director of the Jazz Department at the Liszt Academy, and in 2018 he was awarded an Artisjus Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his work.

Bogdan Benigar (SI)

promoter, director of jazz and world music at Cankarjev dom (Ljubljana), director of Jazz Festival Ljubljana and co-founder and artistic director of Druga Godba Festival (Ljubljana)

Board member of European Forum of Worldwide Music Festivals (1996-1998 and 2004-2008) and board member of the Europe Jazz Network (2012-2018). Leader of the European Jazz Conference in Ljubljana 2017. Received the EJN award for adventurous programming in 2018. Member of the 2006 WOMEX jury and jazzahead! juries in 2011 and 2015.

Kornél Fekete-Kovács

flugelhorn and trumpet player, composer, the artistic director of Modern Art Orchestra

In great demand as a musician, he has worked on more than a hundred discs as a soloist and session musician. As a composer and arranger, he is very much present in the contemporary classical and jazz music scene not only in Hungary. He is the founder of the Budapest Jazz Orchestra, where he was artistic director and soloist from 1998 to 2005. Since 2005, he has been the leader of the Modern Art Orchestra. In 2006, he formed the Fekete-Kovács Quintet.

Attila László

guitar player, composer, associate professor of the Jazz Department at the Liszt Academy

The Franz Liszt Prize-winning jazz guitarist and composer is a pre-eminent representative of modern Hungarian jazz and a highly accomplished musician. After graduating from the Jazz Department of the Béla Bartók Conservatory, he began playing in several leading Hungarian jazz ensembles, and has performed alongside some of the greatest legends of American jazz over the course of his career. He has been teaching at the Jazz Department of the Liszt Academy since 1987, and is currently an associate professor, as well as the leader of the university's big band. Throughout the 15 years of the Jazz Showcase, the L.F.Z.E. Senior Big Band he leads has given large-scale gala concerts with international guests such as Miroslav Vitous and Patti Austin.

Martyna Markowska (PL)

head of programming of the City of Gardens Institution of Culture in Katowice, the Katowice JazzArt Festival and the Gardens of Sounds

As Artistic Director of the Katowice City of Gardens Cultural Institute, Martyna has been responsible for the Katowice JazzArt Festival and the World of Gardens of Sounds Festival since 2013. She also took part in the organisation of WOMEX 2017, and is currently a leading member of the European Jazz Network, a non-profit network of more than 100 organisations.

Steve Rubie (UK)

musician, proprietor and managing director of 606 Club in London

Steve Rubie has managed the legendary 606 Club, located in the Chelsea district of London, since 1976. One of the UK’s leading Jazz Clubs, the 606 Club provides the most talented musicians – including many Hungarian artists – with the opportunity to perform every day of the week. In 2006, it was chosen as Jazz Venue of the Year. Rubie has already judged the competitors of the Jazz Showcase on several occasions, most recently in 2021.

Ulf Werner (DE)

artistic and orchestra director of Konzerthaus Berlin

As a violinist, he has been a member of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Bremen, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and the Boccherini Trio. He worked as a project manager for the Ensemble Modern, and as managing director of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble Resonanz. He took up the position of orchestra manager of the Konzerthaus Berlin in 2006, before being appointed orchestra- and program director of the venue in 2010.