The fourth Ponta Lopud Jazz Festival, which will take place from August 27 to 29 on the island of Lopud near Dubrovnik, presents its new lead festival mentor and Master in Residence, American percussionist, drummer and educator Jamey Haddad. Haddad comes to Lopud in place of the previously announced Omar and Rachel Z Hakim, who had to cancel their participation for health reasons.

Born in Cleveland, Haddad holds a distinctive place in the worlds of jazz, contemporary music and world music. His musical voice transcends genres and trends, while the universal quality of his playing has led to numerous international collaborations. For more than twenty years, he has been Paul Simon’s percussionist, and he has also collaborated with Sting, Yo-Yo Ma, Esperanza Spalding, Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Michael League, founder of Snarky Puppy and Bokanté, composer Osvaldo Golijov, soprano Dawn Upshaw, Brazil’s Assad Brothers and the Paul Winter Consort. His name appears on more than 350 released recordings, and in 2017 he released an album with his own group, Under One Sun, which was also featured by DownBeat magazine.

In 2025, Haddad was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame, considered one of the highest honours in the world of percussion. He is a Fulbright Scholar and the recipient of multiple grants from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts. In 2012, DRUM! magazine named him Top World Percussionist, while Modern Drummer ranked him among the top four in the field. He is also a recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize, and the Cleveland Jazz Society has recognised him as a Legend of Jazz.

His work as an educator is equally important. He is a full professor at the renowned Oberlin Conservatory, where he leads the Performance and Improv programme, in which classical and jazz students perform together in ensembles. He previously taught for almost two decades at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he founded the Mixed World Ensemble, an ensemble in which international students were given the opportunity to perform on the traditional instruments of their cultures in a jazz context. This idea neatly sums up his approach to music and teaching.

During the festival, Haddad will lead masterclasses and workshops, and his arrival further emphasises the fundamental idea of the festival residency: that knowledge is not transmitted through lectures alone, but through playing together and through direct work between mentors and participants.

“I see that you’ve had some of my contemporary soulmates at the festival – people I grew up playing music with. Joe Lovano and Kenny Werner – we all went to school together, and they know how to speak from the heart. Joe is from Cleveland; I grew up playing with his dad. We’re all connected. I’m very much looking forward to coming to Lopud and being part of this legacy.”

– Jamey Haddad

The evening concert programme remains unchanged. On the first festival evening, the audience will experience Camila Meza’s project Portal, in which the guitarist and vocalist, together with Gabriel Chakarji, Alejandra Sofia and Elé Howell, brings together contemporary jazz, Latin American tradition and electronic textures. On the second evening, the duo Rachel Eckroth and John Hadfield will perform with the album Speaking in Tongues, deeply rooted in improvisation, while on the final evening Donny McCaslin, with Jason Lindner, Jonathan Maron and Antonio Sánchez, will present Lullaby for the Lost, an energetic fusion of jazz and rock. Each festival evening will conclude with a joint jam session featuring programme participants and mentors.

Tickets are available via Entrio, while all information about the programme and accompanying events will be available at pontalopud.hr and on the social media channels of the Ponta Lopud Creative Platform.

The Ponta Lopud Creative Platform presents three summer cultural programmes in 2026 and warmly welcomes all lovers of the arts, primarily film, music and literature. Ponta Lopud Film Festival was the first of the three events; it was held from June 25 to 28 and was dedicated to the art of film. The second event, the popular Ponta Lopud Jazz Festival, will bring music lovers to the island from August 27 to 29, while Ponta Lopud Book Bridge will transform the island into a literary haven from September 17 to 19, rounding off the summer season of events.