Plovdiv Jazz Fest Stages Its 12th Autumn Edition With Aaron Parks and Shai Maestro

Plovdiv Jazz Fest opens its 12th autumn edition from Friday, Nov. 6, through Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Boris Hristov House of Culture in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The municipal announcement frames the classic autumn festival as the close of a year that also included newer spring and summer editions, with a programme of contemporary improvisation, European jazz and artists linked to the aesthetics of ECM Records. Tickets are on sale through Eventim; one ticket covers both concerts on a given festival evening.

Friday, Nov. 6, opens at 19:30 with "100 Years of Miles Davis," a project conceived by trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist Rosen Zahariev (Roko) for Plovdiv Jazz Fest. According to the City of Plovdiv's programme note, the concert spans Davis's career from Birth of the Cool to Doo-Bop, with Steve Hamilton on piano, Vasil Hadjigrudev on double bass, Borislav Petrov on drums, and guests Peter Momchev on tenor saxophone and beatboxer Alexander Deyanov (Skiller). At 21:15 the Aaron Parks Trio closes the opening night. Parks, the Seattle-born pianist whose Blue Note debut Invisible Cinema (2008) preceded ECM projects including Arborescence and Find the Way, has recorded with Kendrick Scott, Ambrose Akinmusire and Kurt Rosenwinkel and was a member of James Farm with Joshua Redman, Matt Penman and Eric Harland.

Saturday, Nov. 7, pairs Turkish fretless guitarist Cenk Erdoğan's trio at 19:30 with British vocalist Emma Smith's quartet at 21:15. Erdoğan, a Berklee College of Music faculty member known for Anatolian melodic language on fretless guitar and tambura, appears widely as leader and collaborator; Smith, a Puppini Sisters member and BBC Radio 3 presenter, brings a quartet after awards including the Parliamentary Jazz Award for Jazz Vocalist of the Year in 2024. Sunday, Nov. 8, opens at 19:30 with the Elina Duni Quartet — the Swiss-Albanian singer whose ECM catalogue includes Matanë Malit, Dallëndyshe, Lost Ships and Reaching for the Moon — and closes at 21:15 with the Shai Maestro Trio. Maestro, formerly of Avishai Cohen's trio and now based in Spain, has recorded for ECM and Naïve; his recent The Guesthouse project mixes acoustic piano, electronics and collaborations with MARO, Immanuel Wilkins and Michael Mayo.

The festival is organized by Blue M and realised with financial support from Plovdiv Municipality as part of the city's 2026 cultural calendar. English-language coverage from The Sofia Globe restated the same three-night bill. Accompanying jam sessions and side events are also listed around the main concerts. For international listeners tracking ECM-adjacent touring and Miles Davis centennial programming, Plovdiv's autumn weekend is one of the denser European jazz clusters this early November.