This year‘s European Jazz Conference will take place at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria, between 22 and 25 September 2022– for the first time in South Eastern Europe.

The theme of the 2022 European Jazz Conference is Breaking New Ground. Bulgaria and the presentation of its music on the European festival poster is the highlight of the programme. The conference is the main event of the Europe Jazz Network - the largest professional association of producers, presenters and supporting organisations who specialise in creative music, contemporary jazz and improvised music. It was founded more than 30 years ago and has 180 members from 34 countries. 400 representatives of different organisations dealing with jazz music and cultural policies will attend the event in Sofia.

The Conference will be co-organised by Europe Jazz Network (EJN) and A to Z Foundation- the EJN member that runs the A to JazZ Festival. It is also the only the only member of the professional network from Bulgaria. The selection of this country as the host aims to further integrate the region into the cultural map of Europe. The program of the conference includes concerts of 16 jazz projects from Bulgaria. The selection includes prominent jazz musicians such as Zhivko Petrov, Antoni Donchev, Dimitar Bodurov, Borislav Petrov, Dimitar Liolev and others. The main goal of the hosts is to make the delegates become aware of Bulgaria as a source of high quality music and thus stimulate the export of Bulgarian musical and cultural products to the European scene and markets.