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Swiss Jazz Orchestra

The Swiss Jazz Orchestra is a big band that was founded in 2003. Though the band has seen many changes, there are still some of its initial members. The orchestra's origins lie in the Big Band of the Swiss Jazz School, the oldest college for jazz music in Switzerland (which has been part of the Art School of Bern Hochschule der Künste Bern since 2003). One of the orchestra's features is Monday Jazz Nights, a series of concerts which take place every Monday night at the venue Bierhübeli in Bern. The Swiss Jazz Orchestra celebrated its 10th anniversary in the 2013–2014 season. The Swiss Jazz Orchestra has worked with Anders Bergcrantz, Jerry Bergonzi, Buddy DeFranco, Torun Eriksen, George Gruntz, Joe Haider, Bert Joris, Pepe Lienhard, Jim McNeely, Adrian Mears, Bob Mintzer, Sandy Patton, Chico Pinheiro, Paquito D'Rivera, Claudio Roditi, Alex Sipiagin, and Phil Woods.

Members of the Big Band of the Swiss Jazz School (SJS) in Bern grew tired of losing the graduating and now excellent musicians decided to create a Big Band to continue playing together later on. That's when the Swiss Jazz Orchestra (SJO) was founded. During the first season, orchestra performed Marian's Jazzroom in Bern.

One of the reasons this anniversary can be celebrated is also thanks to the roots that the Bernese surgeon and jazz insider Ulrich Althaus planted for this orchestra: He founded the Association Swiss Jazz Orchestra (Verein Swiss Jazz Orchestra (VSJO)) on February 9, 2004. The purpose of the association is to lay a financial and administrative basis for the SJO. Althaus caught attention and support for that project from the public.

Following Ulrich Althaus, Hans Rudolf Isliker took on the role as president of the Association Swiss Jazz Orchestra (VSJO) until in 2012 Peter Knutti was elected president of the VSJO. For many years, musicians from the band did the management themselves (Till Grünewald, Klaus Widmer, Johannes Walter, Thomas Knuchel), until in 2012 Angela Schenker was hired as part-time manager. With Peter Knutti and the musician's deputies they form the business administration.

Monday Big Band Jazz Nights are a series of concerts that take place every Monday night at the Bierhübeli in Bern. The series has a rotation of different themes (Latin, Tribute, Gala, and Groove Night), which give the orchestra the opportunity to practice its skills in different styles.

The Swiss Jazz Orchestra is the only big band in Switzerland that performs a series of concerts on a regular basis. It means great effort to work on an at least partially new repertoire each week. The Monday Big Band Jazz Nights form the backbone and help realize other advanced projects that include CD productions and touring in Switzerland and abroad.

The program of the Monday Big Band Jazz Nights contains a rotation of four different themes: Groove-Night focusses on tricky and unusual rhythms. Latin Night takes the audience to Latin-American spheres. Furthermore, the SJO has obtained a diverse repertoire of the most different stylistics by all kinds of well-known composers. Once each month, a particular artist or a more general subject that derives from the history of jazz is featured in Tribute-Night. The fourth category of concerts is the Gala Night. For these concerts, a guest is invited who enriches the program through his or her own music, expertise, and personality.

It is very unusual for an orchestra to have not one, but multiple leaders who derive from the orchestra itself. Philip Henzi explains the reasons for that as follows: "Why there is not only one musical leader goes back to the early days of its foundation: The orchestra has been founded by three people. Because we appreciate and depend on the impetus, the motivation and ideals of each band member, we try to have all interests of the band represented democratically amongst the musical leaders. Presumably that is the reason for the consistency in the line-up of our musicians. Furthermore, the large number of tasks (concerning the preparation of programs, the communication with guest-soloists and also the coordination of the rehearsals) makes it almost impossible for one person alone to manage it."

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