The jazz course at MUK Vienna, one of the leading international jazz training institutions, will be presenting itself over five days at the end of the semester with an opulent showcase at Porgy & Bess: as part of the MUK.jazz.festival, current graduates will be presenting themselves in public Bachelor's and Master's concerts. They showcase their personal musical profile in top-class bands and take to the stage. Another highlight is the last day of the festival, on which the MUK.jazzorchestra, conducted by the internationally renowned composer and pianist Nikki Iles, this year's Artist in Residence of the degree program, will perform the program they have developed. (press release)

From talented child prodigy to professional bandleader

At the age of eleven, Nikki Ann Burnham secured a place on the Royal Academy of Music's junior program. That was in 1974, and the young clarinettist and pianist had no idea that her talent would one day lead her to the conductor's podium of the NDR Big Band. She later studied at the Royal Academy and Leeds College of Music, married trumpeter Richard Iles and made her way into jazz.

Nikki Iles received her first impetus to become more involved with large-scale jazz when she joined the Creative Jazz Orchestra in the north of England, a young band that worked with the greats of the genre, with leaders such as Vince Mendoza, Kenny Wheeler and Anthony Braxton. This band was the first for which she also wrote. (Press release)

At the invitation of Lars Seniuk, head of the jazz department at the MUK, the British pianist, conductor and arranger is working on a special program with the MUK.jazorchestra for the P&B... Welcome to the club! CH