BMW Welt Jazz Award Final 2022. Anat Fort Trio and Giovanni Guidi Quintet selected as finalists.

Munich. After six unique soirees, the BMW Welt Jazz Award 2022 enters its final round on July 9 where the Anat Fort Trio and the Giovanni Guidi Quintet will perform their interpretation of this year's theme "Key Position" at the auditorium of the BMW Welt. The winning ensemble, chosen by the renowned jury, will receive the award created by BMW Design as well as a prize money of 10,000 Euro. The runner up will be awarded 5,000 Euro.

Jazz fans have been experiencing the musical skills of this year's performers in six free soirees between March and April in the Double Cone of BMW Welt. In addition to the first and second place winners, the winning ensemble of the audience award will also be announced during the finale and awarded 1,000 Euro.

The finalists

Anat Fort Trio
Pianist Anat Fort ranks among the Israeli artists raised in New York that continue to put their mark on contemporary jazz. Fort has since returned to Israel, a move that in no way slowed down her international career. Since 2007, she has been publishing her albums at Munich-based label ECM with her most recent album "Birdwatching" featuring Italian clarinetist Gianluigi Trovesi as star guest. As so many of her great jazz pianist colleagues, Fort prefers performing as part of a trio working together with bassist Gary Wand and drummer Roland Schneider. Various experiments including her most recent collaboration with tango guitarist and vocalist Shlomo Ydov notwithstanding, the trio has been her ensemble of choice for over 20 years and a constant throughout her artistic career. The resulting trust allows for unparalleled freedom of improvisation, as seen on their most recent album "Colour", released by Sunnyside Records, and soon to be heard at BMW Welt.

Giovanni Guidi Quintet
While still a teenager, pianist Giovanni Guidi truly impressed trumpeter Enrico Rava, Italian super star of jazz, during Rava's jazz workshops and has been his permanent accompanist ever since. In that capacity as well as increasingly with his own projects and ensembles, Guidi has since been making his name on the international stage. For his current programme "Avec le temps" he and his fellow trio members, Chicago-born bassist Joe Rehmer and Portuguese drummer João Lobo, were joined by two other prominent names of the Italian jazz world: woodwind player Francesco Bearzatti and guitarist Roberto Cecchetto. The ensemble prefers impressionist, lyrical and bluesy sounds, as seen in their homages to poet, composer and chansonnier Léo Ferré or the recently deceased trumpeter Tomasz Stańko.

The jury
The jury, headed by Oliver Hochkeppel (journalist for music and cultural affairs, Süddeutsche Zeitung), consists of Heike Lies (Musicologist, Music and Music Theatre Division of the Department of Cultural Affairs of the state capital Munich ), Christiane Böhnke-Geisse (Director of schwere reiter Musik), Roland Spiegel (Editor and jazz expert at German broadcasting station Bayerischer Rundfunk BR-KLASSIK) and Andreas Kolb (Editor-in-chief of JazzZeitung.de and nmz - neue musikzeitung).

The finale
Like the soirees on Tuesdays, the final concert will again be hosted by Hannah Weiss, winner of the BMW Welt Young Artist Jazz Award 2019. The award, created specially by BMW Design, will be handed over by Ilka Horstmeier, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Director of Human Resources and Labour Relations. Anton Biebl, Head of the Department of Cultural Affairs, will be representing the City of Munich.

The concert featuring the two shortlisted finalists will take place at the auditorium of BMW Welt on July 9, 2022at 7.00 pm. Tickets are available at München Ticket.

This year's BMW Welt Jazz Award is presented with the support of nmz - neue musikzeitung and the City of Munich's Department of Culture.