TUJA 2025 Jazz Festival artists selected!

Text Johanna Heinonen
Photo TUJA

TUJA, or Tudengijazz, a national jazz festival for young musicians that is now in its 43rd year, has announced its programme for this spring.

This spring’s festival will feature six ensembles of young musicians on the stage, performing in Tartu, Pärnu, and Tallinn. The following ensembles will be featured in this year’s TUJA 2025 programme: Tundmus Duo meets the Band, Pukk/Lehto/Kaasik/Mäetalu, the Lee Quartet, the Kristiina Valdman Quartet, RMF-Collective, and the Kairiin Kukk Quintet.

The festival’s performers have traditionally been selected via blind auditions by a panel of experts. This year, the panel included Maian Kärmas, Elo-Liis Parmas, Eeva Trei, Karmen Rõivassepp, Birgit Krullo, Lauri Kadalipp, Ivo Heinloo, and Fabian Dudek.

One of this year’s panel members, saxophonist and composer Lauri Kadalipp, describes the young musicians’ style as diverse and bold:

“It was a pleasure to listen to all the submissions to audition, and to notice how young musicians dare to experiment and break the boundaries of jazz by combining different genres, while still maintaining the essential essence and structure of jazz. As they say—there are no wrong notes in jazz, but each note must be played with the utmost dedication, to see where it leads! I hope all applicants and future TUJA performers have the greatest enthusiasm and play with joy!”

The TUJA 2025 festival will be held 4–8 March in Tartu, Pärnu, and Tallinn. The festival kicks off with a free performance at Philly Joe’s Jazz Club in Tallinn on 4 March. A seminar for young musicians will also be held on 4 March, whose programme and speakers will be announced soon.

More information and a more detailed programme can be found in Estonian on the festival’s website.

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