Belgian National Orchestra, JLCO, Wynton Marsalis & Nicola Benedetti

Welcome to the 20th Klarafestival!

Under the title We Are Now, this special anniversary edition pays tribute to the here and now. No one embraces the magic of the moment more fearlessly than festival artist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Wherever and whatever she plays, this Moldovan violinist and composer sets the stage alight. For her, every concert is a new beginning, a full moment in which anything can happen. Klarafestival 2025 paints a multifaceted portrait of Patricia Kopatchinskaja as a violinist, composer and inspiring presence.

In honour of our 20th anniversary, we are launching a new tradition: for one day, Mont des Arts will be transformed into the Muziekberg /Mont des Musiques. Alongside concerts and performances at various venues, a new ensemble will also see the light. Sound of Brussels Orchestra goes in search of the exceptional sound of our capital.

We live in challenging times, and some of the festival projects reflect on this. At the same time, they demonstrate how much hope can lurk between the notes of a Stabat Mater or a Dies Irae. How music can move and inspire us. For Patricia Kopatchinskaja, music is no abstract matter: ‘Music is there for us to do something with it. Even when it has no concrete message or function, it appeals to us. It wants to be heard. I don't believe in absolute music. Not really.'

Let the celebration begin!

Joost Fonteyne, intendant
Jan Raes, chairman
Chantal Pattyn, network manager

An open relationship with jazz and classical

Anyone who follows Wynton Marsalis (New Orleans, 1961) closely will know that besides his jazz career, he is also active in classical music. At the age of fourteen, he made his debut with the New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony, and four years later he went to study the classical trumpet at Juilliard School in New York. At the same time, he became a member of the legendary jazz band Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, realising that his future lay mainly in jazz. Nevertheless, classical music wouldn’t let him go. His second album in his own name, released in 1983, was devoted to trumpet concertos by Haydn, Hummel and others, and immediately won him a Grammy. Many albums of classical trumpet repertoire followed – alternating with his jazz albums, of course – but it would be 1998 before he attempted a classical composition of his own, entitled A Fiddler’s Tale. Since then, Marsalis has regularly created classical pieces such as string quartets, symphonies and concertos, which he interweaves with stylistic features from jazz, blues and other historical Black American music (for example timbre effects such as trumpet growls). In his instrumentation, he also seeks dialogue between the two musical forms. Thus his Fourth Symphony combines a High Romantic orchestra with a modern big band to create one huge, symphonic jazz orchestra.

In his classical work, Marsalis follows in the footsteps of illustrious forebears who, each in their own way, have combined the worlds of classical music and jazz. This has happened in both directions and on both sides of the Atlantic: consider Igor Stravinsky’s ragtime-inspired works such as the third dance from L’Histoire du Soldat (1918–20). Rhapsody in Blue is probably the best-known early example. This composition by George Gershwin premièred in 1924, in a version for Paul Whiteman’s hybrid orchestra: a colourful mixture of classical strings and jazz wind instruments. Perhaps even greater influences on Marsalis are Black Americans such as James P. Johnson and Duke Ellington. Although they were best known as jazz pianists and composers, they also wrote symphonic works, including a piano concerto each, Concerto Jazz-A-Mine (1934) and New World A-Comin’ (1943) respectively.

Storytelling 

Tonight it is not the trumpet but the violin that takes centre stage. Marsalis’ Violin Concerto in D was written for Nicola Benedetti, who worked closely with Marsalis on the creation of the solo part. His first concerto was premièred in 2015 by the London Symphony Orchestra and has since been performed all around the world.

For Marsalis, a virtuoso solo needs to tell a story. He opens this concerto with a ‘once upon a time’ theme played by the lonely violin. The orchestra soon joins in, and the dreamy atmosphere shifts into nightmarish scenes. After a certain turbulence, calm returns. In the coda, we hear a musical memory of the Anglo-Celtic fiddle tradition. The second section, ‘Rondo Burlesque’ is reminiscent of Stravinsky at times, but Marsalis claims it is inspired by New Orleans: jazz, Mardi Gras, the traditional stew gumbo and the sound of a steam organ on a paddle boat. The solo violin begins the third section, ‘Blues’. No heartbreak or catastrophe here; instead, it is a love story between the violin and the orchestra, with all its ups and downs. The concerto reaches its grand finale in the musical folk festival of ‘Hootenanny’. Marsalis invites clapping, stamping and dancing until the violin sets out alone again and softly plays the story out.

The jungle of New York 

Finally, we hear Marsalis’ fourth symphony, The Jungle (2016). He premièred his first symphony, All Rise, in 1999, followed by Blues Symphony (2009/2019) and Swing Symphony (2010) a decade later. He weaves features of jazz, blues, gospel and European symphonic music into each of these works, and The Jungle is no different. This time, the main source of inspiration is New York: the six sections to evoke the different atmospheres, characters and communities of the city he has called home since 1979.

The Jungle opens with ‘The Big Scream’, whose subtitle ‘Black Elk Speaks’ is a reference to the Oglala Lakota healer Black Elk. This section thus represents the Native American roots of New York as well as its present day, where the constantly changing time signatures and unexpected accents capture the chaos of the big city. ‘The Big Show’ takes us into vibrant nightlife, where Marsalis draws on the forerunners to and influences on early jazz, such as ragtime, Broadway shows and the foxtrot. In a city with merciless class distinctions, the church forms a safe haven for the homeless, lonely and down on their luck. The tambourine that opens ‘Lost in Sight (Post-Pastoral)’ refers to spirituals and Black church music as a welcome to these displaced people. ‘La Esquina’ takes us to the Afro-Latin aspect of New York. Latin-American culture is intrinsic to the city, but also to jazz. The seduction game of flirting, teasing and rejection gains musical form in ‘Us’. The symphony ends with the painful realisation that the money jungle of New York is a battlefield between the haves and have-nots. ‘Struggle in the Digital Market’ asks how long we can continue this fight that sets money above human lives. Marsalis’ final trumpet solo is a resolute demonstration of his stubborn refusal to give up.

Matthias Heyman

Translation: Helen White

Belgian National Orchestra

The Belgian National Orchestra has had the Centre for Fine Arts (Bozar) as its home base for many years. Thanks to permanent collaborations with the Festival van Vlaanderen and Festival de Wallonie, it also regularly performs in all the provincial capitals nationwide. In addition, BNO showcases itself internationally through tours abroad and by providing accompaniment for the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Although the orchestra focuses on the symphonic repertoire, contemporary music and film music, it does not shy away from experimenting with pop artists such as Ozark Henry or Stromae. Since 2022, the BNO has been led by the Dutch chief conductor Antony Hermus.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is an American big band and jazz ensemble led by Wynton Marsalis. It was founded in 1988 as an offshoot of the Classical Jazz concert series at Lincoln Center. Since then, the orchestra has been an integral part of Jazz at Lincoln Center, a New York-based organisation dedicated to supporting the jazz community through concerts, education, and outreach. Under Marsalis’s direction, the ensemble performs regularly at its home venue, tours extensively across the United States and abroad, visits schools, and collaborates with symphony orchestras. Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has also recorded dozens of albums, which it has released since 2015 under its own label, Blue Engine Records.

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis is an American trumpet player and composer. Raised in the musical heritage of New Orleans, he began studying classical music at the Juilliard School in New York in 1979, but the call of jazz soon led him down a different path. He left his studies to tour with The Jazz Messengers, Art Blakey’s legendary band, before embarking on a solo career. Since then, he has recorded over 100 jazz and classical albums and performed around the globe. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards and, in 1997, became the first artist to receive a Pulitzer Prize for a jazz composition with his oratorio Blood on the Fields. Since 1991, he has served as artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

David Robertson

The American conductor David Robertson studied horn, composition, and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Over the course of his career, he has led nearly all major orchestras in the United States and Europe. Robertson has served as music director of Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Orchestre National de Lyon, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and as principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award (1997) and the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (2011). Since 2018, he has been the director of conducting studies at The Juilliard School.

Nicola Benedetti

Nicola Benedetti is one of the most notable violinists of her generation. At the age of 16, she rose to fame as the winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. She received the Queen's Medal for Music in 2017 and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2019. In addition, her recording of Wynton Marsalis’ Violin Concerto in D and Fiddle Dance Suite won a Grammy for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. In 2019, she founded the Benedetti Foundation, which uses large-scale events to promote participation in classical music for all. Since 2022, Benedetti has been the first Scottish and first female festival director of the Edinburgh International Festival.

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA

Wynton Marsalis - Music Director, Trumpet

Ryan Kisor -Trumpet

Kenny Rampton -Trumpet

Marcus Printup - Trumpet

Vincent Garnder -Trombone

Chris Crenshaw - Trombone

Elliot Mason - Trombone

Sherman Irby - Alto and Soprano Saxophones, Flute, Clarinet

Alexa Tarantino - Alto and Soprano Saxophones, Flute, Clarinet

Chris Lewis -Tenor and Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet

Abdias - Armenteros - Tenor and Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet

Paul Nedzela - Baritone and Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet

Isaiah J. Thompson - Piano

Carlos Henriquez - Bass

Obed Calvaire -Drums

BELGIAN NATIONAL ORCHESTRA

Concertmaster 
Misako Akama

1. Violin
Nana Kawamura
Sarah Guiget*
Isabelle Chardon*
Maria Elena Boila
Nicolas De Harven
Keika Kawashima
Annija Endija Kolerta
Anastasiya Filippochkina
Françoise Gilliquet
Philip Handschoewerker
Akika Hayakawa
Timur Kolesnikov
Serge Stons

2. Violin
Ignacio Rodríguez Martínez de Aguirre**
Nathalie Lefin*
Michael Bonnay
Isabelle Deschamps
Hartwich D'Haene
Pierre Hanquin
Anouk Lapaire
Louis Noël
Ekaterina Philippovich
Ana Spanu
Marie-Danielle Turner
Ricardo Vieira

Violas
Elaine Ng
Mihoko Kusama*
Carlo Allegri
José Azevedo
Frederik Camacho
Sophie Destivelle

Katelijne Onsia
Jorge Ramos
Silvia Tentori Montalto
Marinela Serban

Violoncellos
Olsi Leka**
Dmitry Silvian**
Maria-Christina Muylle*
Célia Brunet
Lesya Demkovych
Shiho Nishimura
Lucia Otero
Taras Zanchak

Contrebasses
Robertino Mihai**
Ludo Joly*
Svetoslav Dimitriev*
Serghei Gorlenko*
Miguel Meulders
Gergana Terziyska

Flutes
Laurence Dubar*
Jérémie Fèvre*
Emmanuelle Blessig

Oebos
Dimitri Baeteman**
Arnaud Guittet**
Bram Nolf*

Clarinettes
Julien Bénéteau**
Lena La Mela*
Giulio Piazzoli*

Bassoons
Bert Helsen*
Filip Neyens*
Pieter Opsteyn

Horns
Anthony Devriendt**
Katrien Vintioen*
Bart Cypers**
Joannes Van Duffel*

Trumpets 
Leo Wouters**
Andreu Vidal Siquier**
Ward Opsteyn*

Trombones
Guido Liveyns**
Bruno De Busschere**
Wim Matheeuwese*
Pierre Duclos*

Tuba
Martijn van Rijswijk**

Timpani 
Nico Schoeters**

Percussion
Katia Godart*
Sylvie Erauwe
Koen Maes
Arthur Ros
Sander Vanderkloot

Harp 
Annie Lavoisier**

** Leader 1. soloist – 1. solist leader
* Solist