World Music Showcase
July 3rd&4th 2025
powered by UPBEAT
A to JazZ Festival is part of UPBEAT – The European Showcase Platform for World Music
SELECTION JURY:
Balazs Weyer
Ethnomusicologist and director of Hangveto, a world music production company in Hungary and the larger region. He is curating several festivals, including Budapest Ritmo. He is the artistic director of Creative Europe project ‘MOST’ and is representing the city of Veszprem in the UNESCO Cities of Music network. He is a curator of several festivals and showcases and a member of the World Music Charts Europe jury. He is also a producer and music consultant of movie and TV soundtracks, a documentary maker, a music journalist and the chairman of Music Hungary, the music industry association of his homeland. He is a European Capitals of Culture consultant for cities on cultural development projects.
Darek Mazzone
Darek Mazzone is a DJ, filmmaker, producer and cultural strategist whose work bridges music, media, technology and humanitarian impact. Born in Poland and emigrating to the US at a young age, he has built a career dedicated to global storytelling and cultural exchange. As a longstanding host on KEXP, he has played a pivotal role in transforming the station into a global platform for music discovery. His show Wo' Pop has championed numerous international artists, whilst his work helping curate KEXP's YouTube channel, which has over 3 million subscribers, has produced compelling in-studio performances. Mazzone has worked extensively in technology, advertising and startup ecosystems across Asia, collaborating with organizations such as UNESCO, UNHCR, NetHope and Microsoft. His humanitarian work includes projects at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, where he used technology and media to empower displaced communities. As co-founder and executive director of SAMA: Music & Art, he has produced over 300 hours of programming celebrating international artists. Through his latest venture, Old Age Recording Co., Mazzone continues amplifying emerging voices and driving cultural exchange.
Duygu Mühürdar
With degrees in Ethnomusicology and International Relations and nearly a decade of experience in the music industry, Duygu Mühürdar has worked as a booker, programmer, promoter, event producer, music writer, radio host, and vocalist. For three years, she produced and hosted the Jazzville radio show while also writing about music and politics for online magazines. After working in broadcasting and content production at Karnaval Media Group, she took on roles in booking and programming at Beşiktaş Kültür Merkezi, Zorlu Performing Arts Center, and most recently, Pozitif Müzik A.Ş.
Her notable achievements include curating the programs for Digilogue Summit, Sónar Istanbul Festival, Sónar +D, and MIX Festival, advancing and field operations of Babylon Soundgarden 2024 and the 34th Akbank Jazz Festival, as well as managing the booking processes for renowned artists such as IDLES, Röyksopp, Moderat, Ludovico Einaudi, and Róisín Murphy.
Currently, she works as a freelance and project-based booker and programmer, providing consultancy services in the live music sector. She curates the radio show "Breakfast Club" on Literal Radio and has a YouTube show “Duyduk Mu? / Have We Heard?” where she explores the intersection of music, culture and sociopolitics on PekiTivi. She is also actively involved in cultural diplomacy, music export, and talent discovery.
Margarita Borisova
Margarita Borisova is a freelance music journalist based in Sofia and a coordinator in many musical projects, a long term PR of Jazz Plus Concerts (since 2004) and the owner and music consultant in the oldest vinyl and CD shop in Sofia - “Dukyan Meloman” (since 1994) focused in retailing and distributing the production of the European independent labels like ECM, Act, Enja, World Circuit, Karonte, Wagram. Together with Yavor Ganchev Margarita Borisova has conceptualised and put on stage three crossover projects: Estruna - Arcángel and New Bulgarian Voices, a 2018 Latin Grammy winner, the guitar duo The Storytellers: Cenk Erdogan and Antonio Forcione and Roberto Fonseca and New Bulgarian Voices. She has been a jury at the Jazz Eñe Festival 2017 in Madrid, Spain, led a radio show at RFI Sofia and a weekly jazz review column in the period 2000-2010.
Tsvetan Tsvetanov
Tsvetan Tsvetanov has been a radio host of shows about "music that is rarely heard on the Bulgarian airwaves" since 1996 (since 2002 on the Bulgarian National Radio). He has been organizing concerts since 2008 under the name "Alarma Punk Jazz", most of which are broadcasted live on the BNR's cultural program "Hristo Botev". His shows have featured the first (and sometimes only) interviews in Bulgaria with musicians such as John Hassell, Alamailman Vasarat, Ali Farka Toure, Huun Huur Tu, Akira Sakata, Henry Threadgill, Accordion Tribe, Jivan Gasparyan, Charlie Hayden, etc. 90% of all African artists who have played in Bulgaria in recent years gave their first concerts in our country at his invitation (Vieux Farka Toure, Boubacar Traore, King Ayisoba, Noura Mint Seymali, Ukandanz, Bombino, Tamikrest, ect.). In his radio shows, traditional and contemporary world music live in symbiosis with free jazz, gothic blues, electronic avant-garde, experimental genres, literature, cinema, etc.
