The story
Moscow Jazz Festival in Moscow
Moscow Jazz Festival is a week-long jazz event created in 2022 and modeled on major international jazz festivals such as those in Tokyo, London, Copenhagen, Paris, and Berlin. Its 2026 fifth-anniversary edition ran June 8 through 14, bringing more than a thousand Russian and international artists to venues across the city.
Jazz has had a complicated history in Russia, alternately embraced and suppressed across the Soviet period before becoming a well-established part of the country's musical culture in later decades, with Moscow developing dedicated jazz clubs, conservatoire-trained jazz musicians, and figures like saxophonist Igor Butman building international reputations.