The stage is set for the twenty-first edition of Umbria Jazz Winter in Orvieto: five days of music, from 28 December to 1 January, with over one hundred events that together make up one of the traditional dates of the Italian jazz calendar. The Festival is built around a successful tried and tested formula combining tourism and first-class music with the hospitality of one of the most beautiful towns in Umbria, rich in history and art. Headlining at this year’s Festival are some of the great names of jazz, Christian McBride, Uri Caine, Ken Peplowski, Evan Christopher and Anat Cohen, Joe Locke plus some of Italy’s top players, Paolo Fresu, Enrico Rava, Rosario Giuliani, Fabrizio Bosso. The programme includes new musical encounters between artists and innovative projects, and the aim is to create a musical mix that can be appreciated by both well-informed jazz lovers and also by those who are less well versed in the language of African-American music.
Orvieto’s magnificent Cathedral, built in the 1300-1500s to a plan by Lorenzo Maitani, will once again be the setting for a Mass for Peace with Gospel singers on the afternoon of New Year’s Day. Festival concerts take place at the Teatro Mancinelli, the Palazzo del Popolo, the Palazzo dei Sette, and at the Museo Emilio Greco. There will also be music in the Sala del Carmine and at the Ristorante San Francesco, the perfect place for the festival’s Jazz Lunches and Dinners and for the special dinner with music on New Year’s Eve
