The Jazz Gala Awards, organized by the MUZZA Foundation, will take place on Sunday, the 3^rdof April.Alexandru Șipa, the foundation's president, is telling us more about this year's edition, in an interview took by Petre Fugaciu:

The Jazz Gala Awards is reaching its 18^th edition this year. How do you remember the previous editions, before the pandemic?

I try to think joyfully about what has passed, just like I enjoy joyfullythinking about what is to come, because if it weren't for my positivity, if I hadn't hoped for the better, as I've done until now, I think I wouldn't have been able to organize this gala, to train so many people, musicians on the one hand and friends, sponsors, media partners on the other hand.

Please talk to us about this edition's guests.

I'm glad that following some live auditions at different concerts and festivals, as well as some recordings, I managed to outline a series of guests that somehow represent both a part of those nominated and a part of those who are to be awarded. Therefore, we have managed to invite people from different parts of the country, like Laura Orian from Alba Iulia, who had graduated from the "Gheorghe Dima" Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca or Elena Gatcin Trio from Constanța, and then we've got 2 laureates for the Excellence Award sectionfrom Iași, and that's because they are two brothers, part of the Popovici family's group, and then we have people from Bucharest, but some of them actually come from different parts of the country, like SorinZlat representing the Bacău-Iași-București trajectory, or Jezebel, Isabela Barbu, who comes from Germany, where she has lived for a few good years, forming a duo with AlexandruBurcă who had also come from the region of Moldova. From Bucharest there is also Jazzy Jo Experience. There are also Sergiu Ferat, Cosmin Farcaș, and last but not least, Andrei Tudor, a well-known composer, pianist, arranger, conductor, noticed in many events alongside big orchestras, both in Bucharest and Craiova, but also in a smaller combo formula, an accompaniment formula always present at the Johnny Răducanu contest festival's editions in Brăila, and there is one more duo from Bucharest, that has performed more overseas, but they've settled in Bucharest for the last years, Ana Maria and Bogdan Munteanu. Therefore, as far as the representation for the younger or older generations go, because starting with the youngest, like Vlad Briciu from Câmpina who studies at the National University of Music Bucharest, and ending with Isabela Barbu who, let's say, is part of a mature generation, we can say that the new generation, the young generation dominates, but still they have behind many years of studies, activity and experience. At any rate, we can state that they have never performed before, with a single exception, that is SorinZlat, the others have never performed at the Jazz Gala Awards, so it is an additional reason for the public, fans, concert-goers, but also journalists to take interest in this event.