Jazz Conquers Hainan Island

Opening a new Chapter for Hainan Island, the first ever Hainan International Jazz Festival was held from October 24 to 27, 2013 at the beautiful Sheraton Haikou Resort. Privately organized by h&m Productions Asia Co. Ltd. and supported by Hainan and Haikou authorities, this new kind of international events will strongly enhance the visibility of Hainan Island around the world.

Three amazing days of Jazz Music

26 Musicians from 14 Nations performed at the HIJF. The glamorous Opening Gala of the first evening with 400 invited Guests was marked by the Opening Speeches of Michael Lehmann, Executive Director of the Festival, Ulrich Hunn, Consul General of Switzerland in Guangzhou, and Deng Xiao Gang, Executive Vice Mayor of Haikou City, all three of which praised the importance and impact of such international high profile event on Hainan Island.

The opening concert of this Blue Carpet® event was given by Taiwanese Star Joanna Wang, followed by an outstanding performance of Pascal Schumacher Quartet from Luxembourg.

The second day was marked by a master-class given by the Swiss French Group No Square, who gave in the evening the first Concert, right before Wilson Chen from Shanghai.

On the third day, a master-class and a great concert of Reija Lang Trio from Finland, as well as the jazz fusion concert of Swiss Band bconnected, who integrated Chinese traditional songs into their world-jazz, fascinated the public.

The one of a kind see-through stage - which was built by Langzhu Exhibition Shanghai Co Ltd and Sino Events Asia Co Ltd and which was fully integrated in the beautiful garden environment of Sheraton Haikou Resort - inspired the Artists together with the mild temperatures and the star-filled sky over Hainan. And Swiss Sound Engineer Antoine Estoppey further enhanced this exceptional musical experience for totally close to 5000 Festival visitors!

What is the signification of such an event?

The impact of such an event on and to Hainan Island is significant, and as we see it, threefold:

First of all, it's creation: to create something new from scratch in a place that never experienced before such a festival, is pure creation. And creation/creativity is actually the core of jazz music per se, let us explain: a jazz musician knows the scales of the solo part, and can fill in the single notes and breaks at his/her own discretion, filling a blank paper with tunes and harmonies. In the same spirit, we created a Festival for the first time on Hainan dao, building and convincing all involved parties from scratch not only about the importance, but also about the beauty of such a Jazz Festival.

Secondly, it's communication: Music is without doubt the single best connector between people: how to stronger communicate among each other than through harmonies and beautiful melodies. How to better get to know each other than by playing a song or even a concert together! Not the language is the most important, but the scales and tunes, and those are truly international.

This is our goal, to create a moment to connect, to build a platform to communicate, and to offer an opportunity to play together, but before all, it is to create a Festival to enjoy a beautiful moment together.

Last but not least, it's the love for Music & Jazz: in any culture, over all the centuries of history, music has been the constant element and helped generation after generation to overcome all kind of feelings and experiences.

The famous trumpet player Louis Armstrong once said: "Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. And you always love it"

We are convinced, that by bringing the Jazz Festival to Hainan, we will touch hearts, we will bring people to listen, to experience, and some definitely also to love Jazz Music.

What comes next…

It would be a pity and many efforts lost if we would limit ourselves to a one-time-Festival. In contrary, our goal is to make this festival a strong beacon of Hainan's cultural calendar by yearly recurring Festivals, as well as series of peripheral events around them.

As such, we will collaborate with the Universities to establish Blue Carpet LPW (Live Playing Workshops) before the Festival, as to enable young talents to learn from professionals and to get an opportunity to play at the festival.

We will continue the Blue Carpet Master-classes during the Festival, giving a possibility to professional musicians and teachers to go beyond boundaries, to learn new techniques and profit from experience of artists touring around the globe.

h&m Production will further organize satellite-concerts in various locations before and after the festival, so to give more people access to our musical offer and to different styles of jazz, which are yet not well known.

Combining all this, we aim to integrate into the life of Hainan, work together with institutions, companies and locals in order to make the Festival even more attractive. But we also want to offer a new lifestyle, where people start to enjoy good moments, be it with a glass of wine, a good cigar, on a yacht or in a nice private jet, but always with a beautiful tune of jazz.

The coming years will show that this trend is growing, especially in such paradisiac places like Hainan Island, where folks come to relax from the cities, recover from their work, rejoice with their close ones and create beautiful memories together in harmony.

We thank Hainan and Haikou City for having our Hainan International Jazz Festival, and we look forward to organize many International Jazz Festivals over the Years to come as to conquer many hearts with Jazz Music.