German Jazz Award 2025: NICA artists nominated

Nominations for the German Jazz Award 2025 have been announced.

The place for this year’s German Jazz Award ceremony on June 13 will once again be Cologne - as a stronghold for jazz and improvised music, a large number of Cologne musicians are already among the nominees and winners of the prestigious prize. This year’s nominees also include a number of NICA artists who were able to arouse the jury’s interest with their current projects in various categories:

Saxophonist, composer and sound tinkerer Luise Volkmann, born in 1992 and NICA artist since 2022, is among the nominated musicians in the “Woodwind” category. This is not the first time the musician has been considered for the German Jazz Award: Volkmann was already selected as a nominee for the category “composition of the year” in 2021.

Stefan Schönegg, double bassist, composer and co-founder of the Cologne-based musicians’ collective and label impakt, has been a NICA artist since 2023. His release “Enso: A Simplified Space” with Marlies Debacker (piano, also a NICA artist) and Etienne Nillesen (prepared snare drum) is dedicated to minimalist sound production in an intimate line-up. Recorded in the chamber music hall of Deutschlandfunk, Schönegg and his project, which was released again with this line-up in December 2024, were nominated in the “Radio Production of the Year” category.

Sophie Emilie Beha - also a NICA artist since 2022 - is the first curator and journalist to join the NICA artist development funding program. Launched as a pilot project, the boundaries and possibilities of the program are thus extended to the learning field of curatorial and journalistic activities. Since her appointment, Beha has been able to realize several inspiring projects, including the festival Houbara with a focus on Iranian music practice from the past and present, as well as the new concert series R.I.T.U.A.L., which will take place in the Stadtgarten from June 2025. Beha is also nominated this year in the special category “Journalistic Achievement” for the radio report “Courageous Patterns - The Singer and Composer Miriam Elhajli”.

Several NICA artists have already been among the nominees and winners of the German Jazz Award in the past, including Heidi Bayer (“Composition of the Year 2023”), Pablo Held (“Piano/Keyboards 2022”; category now renamed “Keyboard Instruments”) and Theresia Philipp (in collaboration with Andreas Theobald, MDR Rundfunkchor and Leipziger Jazztage) in the “Radio Production of the Year” category.

The 5th German Jazz Award ceremony will take place on June 13 at the E-Werk in Cologne-Mülheim and will be broadcast live by WDR.

Further information on the German Jazz Award can be found here.