Umbria Jazz Festival to run in Chengdu until October 23

(AGI) Bejing, Oct 17 - Chengdu, China's south-eastern metropolis with the country's highest growth rate and a population of 16 million people, will be playing host to the Umbria Jazz Festival until October 23. The festival, organized in partnership with the Fondazione Umbria Jazz, the Italian Embassy in Beijing, the Italian Consulate General in Chongqing, the Umbria Region and the Italian-Chinese company West Trading, will have free admission. The Eastern Suburb Memory Park of the Chinese metropolis, with indoor and outdoor areas, will be the festival's main location. Shows will also be scheduled at other locations such as Park 321, in the Tianfu District, the city's musical conservatory and its Normal University. The Stefano Di Battista quintet, the Rosario Giuliani quartet, the "Close to you" project by Karima, dedicated to Burt Bacharach's music, and the Funk Off marching band will be among the artists performing at the first edition of the Umbria Jazz Festival in China. In addition, the Funk Off marching band will participate in the Jz Festival in Shanghai from October 14 to 16 and will hold a performance in Beijing on October 23. There will also be two New Orleans bands, the Walter Wolfman Washington band and the Dwayne Dopsie Band, performing at the Umbria Jazz Festival in China. The Chengdu festival is "a point of arrival as well as a stepping stone to promote Italian jazz in the world. China is a country with great development opportunities and for jazz is almost virgin territory," pointed out Stefano Mazzoni, Vice-President of the Fondazione Umbria Jazz. Fernanda Cecchini, councillor for Culture of the Umbria Region said that the festival is an important event for the whole region, since "by exporting Italian music, we also export our culture, a lifestyle that can also be seen in the way we organize events, of which the festival is an outstanding example." (AGI). .