The Ponta Lopud Jazz Festival, taking place on the island of Lopud from 27 to 29 August, has presented the thirteen young professional musicians who will enter its mentoring program this year. Selected through an international open call, they come to Lopud from eleven countries across Europe and North and South America: from Ireland and Estonia to Peru, Mexico and Puerto Rico. This year’s group is especially well balanced: alongside three vocalists, the three festival days on the island will bring together two pianists, two guitarists, two saxophonists, two bassists and two drummers, forming a line-up that naturally comes together as an ensemble.

The vocal line-up opens with Alyssa Allgood, the Chicago-based singer, songwriter and bandleader who has twice been named a Rising Star in DownBeat magazine’s Critics Poll and was the first winner of the Ella Fitzgerald Competition. She has performed at Birdland, the Green Mill and Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, recorded with John Patitucci, Kendrick Scott and Geoffrey Keezer, and is preparing a new album, co-produced by two-time Grammy winner Nicole Zuraitis, for spring 2027. Croatia will be represented by Lela Kaplowitz, originally from Sisak, who studied jazz vocal improvisation in Graz and New York with Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy and Barry Harris, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Blue Note and Dizzy’s Club, with collaborations including the Arturo O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. The trio is completed by Swiss vocalist Salome Moana, recipient of the Artist Award of the Canton of Solothurn, which enabled her New York residency, while she earned her master’s degree in jazz vocals in Basel with Luciana Souza, Jorge Rossy and Larry Grenadier.

At the piano will be Slovenian musician Aljoša Kavčič, who comes from the Ljubljana school of Marko Churnchetz and has received three first prizes at the TEMSIG national competition as well as the EMCY award, with his debut album forthcoming on Unit Records. Estonian pianist Rahel Talts leads her own fourteen-member ensemble, which this year was named Estonia’s Jazz Ensemble of the Year; she has also taken part in the Elbphilharmonie Jazz Academy, performed with the Euroradio Jazz Orchestra as Estonia’s representative and released three albums of original music.

Some of the participants have shared stages even before Lopud; among them is Lithuanian saxophonist Donatas Petreikis, based in Tallinn, who spent nearly a decade in Denmark and has also collaborated with the Rahel Talts ensemble. He holds a PhD from the Danish Music Academy, has released three albums as a bandleader and has performed at festivals including Jazz Baltica, Vilnius Jazz and the Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Alongside him, saxophone will also be represented by Valencian musician Fran Ramos, who opened the Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival, sharing the program with Eliane Elias and Robert Glasper, has collaborated with Carles Benavent and Perico Sambeat, and on his album Steppin’ Beyond for Fresh Sound Records brings together modal jazz, chacarera and afrobeat.

The guitarists come from two different corners of the world: Puerto Rican musician Rafael Rosa has been active in New York since 2011 as a performer, engineer and producer, and after the album Axiomatic: Music for the People received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in composition; his debut album Portrait, co-produced by Grammy-winning bassist John Benitez, brought together Puerto Rican bomba and plena rhythms with jazz harmony. Swiss guitarist Christian Zatta has performed more than 450 concerts in thirteen countries and recorded eleven studio albums, holds two master’s degrees from the Jazz Department in Lucerne and spent three periods in New York, where he studied with Mike Stern, Ben Monder and last year’s festival mentor Shai Maestro. His main project, NOVA, is an audiovisual trio performing original music with 360-degree video projections.

The bassists perhaps bring the widest range. Irish musician David Duffy works across jazz, contemporary classical music, electronica and theater – his debut album Where the Branches Begin was praised by BBC Music Magazine, while in addition to leading his own quartet he designs sound for international theater, dance and circus productions. Peruvian musician Juan Pablo Egúsquiza, based in Barcelona, connects double bass with free jazz, noise, experimental and improvised music, and creates sound sculptures from recycled materials, exploring how discarded objects can be transformed into sources of sound and how people, objects and materials relate to one another.

The rhythm section is completed by drummers Tijan Grašič and Arturo Hintze. Grašič is a member of the first generation of Slovenia’s undergraduate jazz program. In November 2025, he became the first drummer to perform at Zagreb’s BP Club after its closure in 2011. In addition to his own quartet, he performs with the Primož Grašič Quartet, various big bands and BP Continuo, which continues the legacy of vibraphonist Boško Petrović, and he has also studied with one of this year’s festival mentors, Antonio Sánchez. Mexican drummer and educator Arturo Hintze graduated cum laude in jazz drums from the Maastricht Conservatorium, where he later taught for two years. He has performed from Mexico and Indonesia to Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and is currently completing a master’s degree at ESMUC in Barcelona.

Since its first edition in 2023, more than 40 young professional musicians from around the world have taken part in the Ponta Lopud Jazz Festival’s mentoring program. This year’s participants will work with principal festival mentor Jamey Haddad and a mentoring team comprising Camila Meza, Donny McCaslin, Rachel Eckroth, John Hadfield, Antonio Sánchez, Jason Lindner, Jonathan Maron, Alejandra Sofia, Gabriel Chakarji, Elé Howell and festival co-founder and Artistic Director Thana Alexa. The evening concerts in the Grand Hotel Garden will present Portal by Camila Meza, Speaking in Tongues by Rachel Eckroth and John Hadfield, and Lullaby for the Lost by Donny McCaslin.

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

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