Four Days, a Thousand Notes: Cortona Jazz 2026

Every autumn, once the summer crowds have gone and the hills of the Valdichiana take on the colours of the grape harvest, Cortona turns the spotlight on a different kind of show. For four days the fortress, the churches, the theatre and the historic halls of the old town fill with music: this is Cortona Jazz, the festival that brings to town some of the leading figures of contemporary jazz from New York and Europe, together with the young talents who come here to study with them.

The 2026 edition

Dates: Wednesday 21 to Saturday 24 October 2026 (9th edition)

Times: evening concerts from 9:00 pm; jam sessions every night from 11:30 pm in the Sala Pavolini

Venues: Fortezza del Girifalco (Girifalco Fortress), Pieve di San Michele Arcangelo in Metelliano, Centro Convegni Sant'Agostino (Sant'Agostino Conference Centre), MAEC (Museum of the Etruscan Academy and the City of Cortona), Chiesa di San Domenico (Church of San Domenico), Sala Pavolini (above the Teatro Signorelli)

Tickets: on sale online at ticketitalia.com

Organised by: Associazione Culturale Mammut (Mammut Cultural Association), with artistic direction by Ohad Talmor

Info: www.cortonajazz.org

The festival's story: born on a white night

Cortona Jazz was born in April 2017, almost on a whim, during the town's Notte Bianca (White Night, when the historic centre stays open late into the night). The idea came from Antonio Massarutto, who doesn't play an instrument but loves jazz deeply, and who prefers to sculpt during the jam sessions: many of the mammoths that became the association's symbol are his work. It was an instant success, so much so that the evening was repeated at the end of the summer with trombonist Glenn Ferris's quintet.

Then, over the winter, jazz never really left: the Cortona Jazz Club was born, with improvised sessions in bars and restaurants around the old town. In 2018 the Mammut Cultural Association gave the project a lasting shape, with workshops and concerts that drew musicians from all over the world and an ever-growing audience of enthusiasts. In spring 2019 the festival returned for a second year running, in the cloister of Palazzo Casali, under the loggia of the Teatro Signorelli and even in the archaeological park of the Melone del Sodo, an Etruscan burial mound.

Then came the pandemic. The spring 2020 edition was cancelled, but the association didn't stop: it moved jazz outdoors and took it on tour around the Valdichiana, from Civitella to Lucignano and as far as Castiglione del Lago, with the Mammut Jazz Fest. In July 2021 Cortona started playing again, with workshops in the woods of Monte Ginezzo and concerts in the gun emplacement of the Girifalco Fortress.

Since 2024 the festival has found its permanent home in October, under the artistic direction of saxophonist Ohad Talmor, a New Yorker by adoption and a pupil of Lee Konitz. Year after year it has grown into an international point of reference, thanks to its ties with the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique in Geneva, the New School in New York and Siena Jazz.

The heart of the festival: the Cortona Jazz Workshop

What sets Cortona Jazz apart from so many other festivals is that here music isn't just something you listen to: it's something you learn. The Cortona Jazz Workshop brings young musicians from around the world to town, and for four days they study and play side by side with the big names on the programme. In the evening you'll find those same students on stage or at the jam sessions, next to their teachers.

And the jams are the most special moment of all. Every night from 11:30 pm, the Sala Pavolini above the Teatro Signorelli turns into the Cortona Jazz Club: a cocktail, music born in the moment, established artists, students and audience all in the same room. Nobody knows how the night will end, and that's the beauty of it.

The 2026 programme

Wednesday 21 October, Girifalco Fortress: the festival opens with "Morabeza" by double bassist Silvia Bolognesi, artistic director of Siena Jazz, together with saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, named DownBeat magazine's Artist of the Year in 2024 and 2025. Next comes drummer Adam Nussbaum's "Lead Belly Project", early blues reimagined by four great American improvisers.

Thursday 22 October: at the Pieve di San Michele Arcangelo in Metelliano, Fay Victor's voice meets Joel Ross's vibraphone and John Hébert's double bass. Later, in the Sala Pavolini, the Andrea Lombardini Quartet presents new Italian jazz.

Friday 23 October: at the Sant'Agostino Conference Centre, the quartet of trumpeter Michael Rodriguez, who has played with Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Charlie Haden. Then Francesco Bigoni solo, between saxophone, clarinet and electronics.

Saturday 24 October: at 6:00 pm at the MAEC, "Parigi. Il jazz al tempo di Gino Severini" (Paris: Jazz in the Time of Gino Severini), a musical tribute to the great painter from Cortona. In the evening, at the Church of San Domenico, the Collettivo Synthesis with Fay Victor, followed by the grand finale with the Abraham Burton Quartet.

Why Cortona Jazz matters to Cortona

Cortona Jazz was created with a clear goal: to keep the town alive beyond the summer season, with cultural events of the highest quality. It has succeeded. In just a few years it has brought within our walls musicians you would usually hear in New York's clubs, and had them play in places steeped in centuries of history, from the Medici fortress to ancient churches. And it has done something more: it has built a bridge between Cortona and jazz schools around the world, turning the town every October into a small international crossroads of music and young people.

Where to stay for Cortona Jazz

Hotel Villa Santa Margherita is the ideal base for enjoying the festival: from the hotel you can walk to the historic centre, so you can take in the concerts and stay late at the jam sessions without a care. After a night of jazz, a generous breakfast buffet awaits you and, if you arrive by car, your own numbered parking space, so you can come and go as you please. Discover our rooms and book your stay for the festival.