İstanbul takes pride of hosting another important international activity on April 30, 2013.

International Jazz Day was organized this year in İstanbul with the initiative and contributions of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and was celebrated with a great concert which was viewed by approximately two billion people around the world.

Jazz music symbolizing universal values such as freedom, peace and brotherhood outreached to the world via İstanbul, a city which embraces the same values for thousand years on April 30, 2013.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in November 2011, proclaimed 30 April to be celebrated as “International Jazz Day”. Activities of International Jazz Day were organized for the first time in Paris, New York and New Orleans, birth place of jazz music on April 27-30, 2012.

UNESCO named İstanbul as the host city of activities of the Second International Jazz Day upon the initiatives of Turkish Foreign Ministry.

Since October 2012, intensive preparations for the gala concert which was held at the Hagia Irene Museum on April 30 were conducted together with the UNESCO as well as Thelonius Monk Jazz Institute, responsible for musical content. The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) was also responsible for the organizational aspects of activities of the International Jazz Day which were held under the patronage of Mr. Ahmet Davutoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and Mr. Ömer Çelik, Minister of Culture of Turkey.

The gala concert at the Hagia Irene Museum featured world famous musicians. Herbie Hancock, pianist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, John Beasley, pianist and musical director of the gala concert as well as pianists George Duke, Robert Glasper, Ramsey Lewis, Keiko Matsui and Eddie Palmieri; vocalists Ruben Blades, Al Jarreau, Milton Nascimento, Dianne Reeves, Esperanza Spalding and Joss Stone; trumpeters Terence Blanchard, Hugh Masekela and İmer Demirer; bassists James Genus, Marcus Miller and Ben Williams; drummers Terri Lyne Carrington and Vinnie Colaiuta; guitarists Bilal Karaman, John McLaughlin, Lee Ritenour and Joe Louis Walker; saxophonists Dale Barlow, Igor Butman, Branford Marsalis, Wayne Shorter and Liu Yuan; clarinettists Anat Cohen and Hüsnü Şenlendirici; violinist Jean-Luc Ponty; Pedrito Martinez on percussion; tabla master Zakir Hussain and trombonist Alevtina Polyakova appeared on the stage.

Moreover special guests Martin Luther King III, Thelonius Monk Junior and comedian Cem Yılmaz also participated in the gala concert.

All these musicians are a group of stars who up until now never took the same stage during their careers. It is almost impossible to watch the same group together on the same stage. International jazz authorities named the group as “All Star Band” and “Dream Team”

Jazz music which offers a tool for peace, unity, dialogue and enhanced cooperation and serves as a basis for mutual understanding and tolerance, gender equality and youth’s role for social change, conveyed the message of freedom, peace and brotherhood from İstanbul which embraces these values for thousand years to a global audience.