With special projects and sound spaces, the Jazzfestival Saalfelden completes its 2026 programme

Once again, the Jazzfestival in Saalfelden Leogang sharpens its profile in those areas where jazz extends beyond the concert format: into public space, into forms of togetherness, and into performative border zones between sound, image and movement. With two major special projects, the 46th edition of the festival places particular emphasis on formats that not only claim encounters, but actively create them.
 

MMM: A score as a living organism
With “WAS___”, MMM (Maja Osojnik, Mathia*s Lenz and Matija Schellander) present the opening of a ten-year spatial and sonic journey at Kunsthalle Saalfelden. The starting point is a 66-metre-long graphic score, understood less as a finished work and more as an open, constantly evolving system. Print techniques, tape recordings, loudspeakers and performative interventions merge into an experimental setup between installation, concert and acoustic forensic practice. Together with percussionist Špela Mastnak, a fragile, physical sonic world emerges in which touch, materiality and micro-sounds take centre stage. The audience becomes part of a process that continues to evolve with every performance.
 

The Big Shake: A jubilee homecoming for Shake Stew
In  a very different yet equally communal spirit, the anniversary project of Shake  Stew presents itself.   When the band performed the opening concert of the Jazzfestival Saalfelden in 2016, an extraordinary success story began. Today, the septet ranks among the defining formations of the European jazz scene, awarded among others with the German Jazz Prize 2021 and the Amadeus Austrian Music Award 2023. To mark its tenth anniversary, Lukas Kranzelbinder returns with a large-scale project developed specifically for Saalfelden. 
Under the title “The Big Shake – A Saalfelden Homecoming”, the Saalfelden brass bands Bürgermusik Saalfelden and the Eisenbahner Stadtkapelle combine their sonic worlds with the music of Shake Stew, forming a 70-strong musical parade that moves on Saturday from 02:00 p.m. from the Rathausplatz (Town Hall Square) across the town to the Congress Centre and further into the park.  A grand finale will follow there from 03:00 p.m.: first featuring the two Saalfelden brass bands, before Shake Stew takes over in their usual line-up on the park stage.
 

Striking presence: leading pianists at the keyboard
This year, prominent female musicians set key accents in the programme. Marta Sanchez, Marina Džukljev, Tamara Stefanovich and Eve Risser will all appear on stage as internationally acclaimed pianists. Their concepts range from finely detailed composition to free improvisation and radical sonic exploration, with these differing aesthetic approaches underlining the artistic breadth of the festival.
 

Mainstage between commissioned works and sonic exploration
Once again, the Jazzfestival Saalfelden mainstage programme focuses on distinctive artistic signatures and musical openness. Yvonne Moriel presents “Strange Motion”, a commissioned work created specifically for the Jazzfestival Saalfelden. The new project moves between jazz, chamber music and experimental sound research, and is one of the festival’s central world premieres.
The programme then spans a wide range, from the subtle Henriette Eilertsen Trio to the dense complexity of the Marta Sanchez Quintet, and on to the intense musical dialogue between Andreas Schaerer and Daniel Garcia. 
 
Saturday once again focuses on powerful ensembles and musical openness. The avant-garde project “SDLW” led by Tamara Stefanovich is contrasted with the finely balanced Sheen Trio and the orchestral layering of Dag Magnus Narvesen’s octet “DAMANA”. This is followed by a transatlantic summit between Darius Jones and Otomo Yoshihide, before the Chicago Underground Duo explores complex musical visions.
 
On Sunday, the trio “Industriesalon”, led by Marina Džukljev, opens the mainstage programme. Afterwards, the cinematic and powerful formation “Ye Olde 2” by trombonist Jacob Garchik, as well as the intercultural duo “Thousand Leaves”, take the stage as further highlights of the day. The closing performance is the revival of Chris Speed’s legendary quartet “YEAH NO”, bringing the New York Downtown sound of the turn of the millennium into the present.
 

New spaces, night programmes and alpine resonances
Away from the mainstages, the festival opens new spaces, and for the first time two solo concerts will take place at Museum Schloss Ritzen. The Polish project “Zbigniew – NO ANGRY songs” and Delphine Joussein’s solo work “Calamity” promise intense and immediate concert experiences.
 
At the Otto-Gruber-Halle, a wide range of sonic free spirits will once again cross paths, with acts such as Mel*E, Brique “La danse du béton”, Trunk and Earthball opening up spaces between club culture, noise, improvisation and electronic music deep into the night. The expanded late-night programme responds to the high audience numbers of the Nexus+ concerts in previous years and offers musical discoveries in the hall until 
01:00 a.m.. These later programme slots help to distribute visitor flows, while the legendary Nexus Bar once again serves as an open, relaxed meeting point for all participants alike.
 

Alpine resonances and urban tracks
The popular “We Hike Jazz” hikes once again combine nature experience and concert format. While Lukas Kranzelbinder leads the first tour on Thursday, 20 August, as a secret festival opening, saxophonist Anna Tsombanis takes over the second hike on Saturday, 22 August. Both tours are already sold out.
 
Two alpine concerts extend the programme beyond traditional venues into the alpine landscape: The Ensemble Klakradl and the Tini Trampler & Playbackdolls Quartet combine jazz, Viennese song, pop and performance with exuberant playing. A particular highlight is the concert at the historic hermitage Einsiedelei above Schloss Lichtenberg, where saxophonist Chris Speed and trumpeter Cuong Vu present a contemplative counterpoint to the musical bustle in the valley.
 
In the city, the freely accessible City Tracks invite visitors to make spontaneous musical discoveries, while the Short Cuts offer compact concert experiences with stylistic openness. In the two projects Christoph Cech & oenm and Stefanovich / Dell / Lillinger / Westergaard, improvised music meets new music, while formations such as the Lava Quartet and DaughterDaughter complete the musical palette. The ticketed Shortcuts concert series is already sold out.
 
In 2026, the Jazzfestival in Saalfelden Leogang remains a festival that not only presents jazz, but also understands it as a social, spatial and artistic practice.