News • 30.06.2025

JazzCamp for Piger starts today across Denmark – 12 international partners are in

Starting today, JazzCamp for Piger kicks off at 11 music schools across Denmark — and the number of international partners continues to grow.

Hundreds of young girls to try playing in a band

From June 30 to July 3, improvisation and jazz will fill rehearsal rooms from Aalborg to Vordingborg, as JazzCamp for Piger brings together hundreds of young girls to form bands where they’ll learn to improvise and compose. Since it began 11 years ago, JazzCamp for Piger has grown far beyond Denmark’s borders, expanding to the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, India, Hungary, Canada, and Turkey. In Denmark, the 2025 edition of JazzCamp for Piger will take place at 11 music schools across the country.

Community and a culture beyond perfection

The girls experience a fun and committed community, and improvisation has proven to be an effective tool in music education for children—offering an important counterbalance to the perfectionist culture that is widespread among today’s youth.

“But perhaps the most important lesson for the students at Jazz Camp for Girls is that there is a place for them in jazz at all.”
New York Times

JazzCamp for Piger. Photo: Fulano

JazzCamps Across the Country

JazzCamp for Piger 2025 will take place in collaboration with local music schools across Denmark during the first week of the school summer holiday — this year from Monday, June 30 to Thursday, July 3, daily from 10 AM to 3 PM. This year’s participating music schools are:

Aalborg Kulturskole
Musikhøjskolen Frederiksberg
Holbæk Kulturskole
Kulturskolen Kolding
Vordingborg Kommunes Musikskole
Den Kreative Skole in Silkeborg
Odense Musikskole
Aarhus Musikskole
Rytmisk Center in Copenhagen
Kulturskolen Esbjerg
Mariagerfjord/Rebild

Jazz Camp for Girls Summit in Helsinki 2025

From June 16–18, 2025, JazzDanmark hosted the Jazz Camp for Girls Summit 2025, bringing together educators and project leaders from across Europe and Canada, as well as representatives from the Europe Jazz Network (EJN), in Helsinki. Through workshops, knowledge sharing, and creative exchange, partners worked together to strengthen the JazzCamp for Piger model and develop new ideas for future collaborations. The summit was attended by Nordic Culture Point and the Nordic Culture Fund, both supporters of the international project. In addition to workshops, presentations were held by Canadian and European partners.

JazzCamp for Piger: An Internationally Recognized Success

JazzCamp for Piger was founded in 2014 by Copenhagen Jazz Festival and JazzDanmark, and it has since grown beyond Denmark’s borders. JazzDanmark has continued the project in collaboration with Danish music schools and new international partners, giving girls in many parts of the world the opportunity to improvise and compose in creative musical communities through JazzCamp for Piger. This expansion has been made possible with support from the Nordic Culture Fund.

In 2022, The New York Times highlighted the growing international significance of the project with a full-page feature on JazzCamp for Piger in Copenhagen. Read it here.

During the Danish state visit to Poland in 2024, JazzCamp for Piger was attended by, among others, H.M. King Frederik X and a large delegation of officials, cultural representatives, and business leaders from both Poland and Denmark. Read about it here.