NICA live Summer 2026

The warm summer days are here! And with that, the NICA live summer season kicks off once again with weekly concerts in July and August

Starting on 13 July, we’ll be kicking off the 2026 summer edition every Monday with weekly NICA live concerts on the Green Room open-air stage at Stadtgarten Cologne. The dynamic NICA artists from the 2023 and 2024 generation have once again put together strong programmes this year – one-off collaborations between local and international musicians, experimental instrumentation and unique compositions form the highlight of the summer. Each of the line-ups in July will be making their debut in the NICA live concert series – a rarity in today’s live music scene. For just €8 or €10 per ticket, we invite you to experience one-time only musical events:

Kicking things off on 13 July this year is pianist, composer and NICA artist Marlies Debacker with an ensemble put together especially for her NICA live evening. Debacker has invited clarinettist Ghazal Faghihi, who will first present her solo programme before joining Debacker on piano, Salim(a) Javaid on saxophone and Elisabeth Coudoux on cello to perform together. Musically speaking, all the musicians involved straddle the boundaries: classical meets jazz, improvisation meets contemporary music, spontaneity meets precision.

This concert takes place at the Christuskirche next to Stadtgarten – a 5-minute walk from the Stadtgarten concert venue – following the forecast heatwave the previous weekend, this is a great place not only to listen to the excellent musicians in a special acoustic setting, but also to cool off within the church walls.

👉 Tickets for NICA live: Ghazal Faghihi Solo + Debacker/Javaid/Coudoux/Faghihi

Next on the programme Felix Hauptmann has come up with another special line-up for his concert: with SEEN, the Cologne-based pianist, composer and NICA artist brings together musicians whose artistic styles are as distinctive as they are open to collective processes. The project takes as its starting point selected material by and from the circle of the American pianist and composer Carla Bley, who passed away in 2023. On this evening, her compositions will form one of several reference points for improvisations that repeatedly draw on this material and develop new directions from it. For this evening, Hauptmann has specifically invited three colleagues who, thanks to their individual musical language and distinctive sounds on their respective instruments, are known far beyond the borders of Cologne: Michael Attias on saxophone, bassist Dieter Manderscheid and Oli Steidle on drums. We can look forward to an evening that is both thrilling and sonically intimate.

👉 Tickets for NICA live: Felix Hauptmann SEEN

To round off this warm July, saxophonist, improviser and NICA artist Jonas Engel is following in the footsteps of his fellow artists and inviting a diverse line-up from his various musical contexts to join him for a musical adventure. Under the name Bienrain, Engel brings together Niloufar Shiri on the kamancheh (part of his group ZEVRA, which previously performed at NICA live in April), Marina Džukljev and former NICA artist Philipp Zoubek on piano and synthesizer, as well as Dominik Mahnig on drums, all coming together on stage for the first time for an improvised performance. This is yet another line-up that has never before existed in this form, promising an evening full of musical surprises.

👉 Coming soon here – tickets for NICA live: Jonas Engel: Bienrain

August treats us to no fewer than five NICA live concerts on all five Mondays – featuring and curated by NICA artists Theresia Philipp, Thomas Sauerborn, Jorik Bergman and Emily Wittbrodt, amongst others.