NICA live Special

On 7 and 8 January 2027, NICA live special, in partnership with WINTERJAZZ KÖLN (9 January), will kick off the festival weekend at the Stadtgarten in Cologne to mark the start of the year – further details on the programme and ticket prices will follow shortly.

In the meantime, you can find out more about the origins and concept of the NICA live special here:

For five years now, NICA artist development has been kicking off the pre-festival evenings of the legendary WINTERJAZZ KÖLN with ‘NICA live special’. Born out of the idea of organising the monthly concert series of the support programme – ‘NICA live’ – as an annual festival in its own right, NICA live special has become an integral part of the NICA programme. Aimed at showcasing NICA artists and their projects to an international audience of music professionals, the pre-festival event for WINTERJAZZ has also developed into a major concert event at the start of the year for an interested local audience.

It was not until the fourth edition of NICA live special in 2026 that the musical programme was extended to two evenings instead of one, which firmly underpins the fundamental idea of the showcase festival – to enable all NICA artists to stage a project within a framework entirely of their own choosing. It serves as an additional paid performance opportunity, a space for experimentation and trying out new ideas, including in line-ups never heard before and with new compositions.

Ultimately, NICA’s artist development programme is designed to provide individual support for musicians through advice, networking, funding, residencies, masterclasses and concerts. At the same time, a key priority is to ensure the long-term strengthening of North Rhine-Westphalia’s music scenes, going beyond the individual level. Accordingly, the fundamental idea behind the NICA live concert series and the associated NICA live special festival is not only to raise the profile of NICA artists and their projects, but also to provide an infrastructure that ultimately supports both individual musicians and their respective scenes and fellow musicians.