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The Friends Circle of the UdK Berlin | Karl Hofer Society also awards jazz prizes in 2026 to support students at the Jazz Institute of Berlin. The annual award ceremonies, with subsequent concerts by the winners, will take place on Tuesday, December 15, 2026, at 7:00 PM. Members of the Friends Circle and jazz enthusiasts are warmly invited. We are pleased to be able to award the "Karl Hofer Jazz Scholarship, endowed by Lydia Steffen" for the third time. The scholarship is worth 12,000 euros, or 1,000 euros per month for one year. This is made possible by the estate of Lydia Steffen (†), with the aim of effectively supporting students and graduates of the Jazz Institute of Berlin (JIB). In December 2025, Lydia Steffen would have celebrated her 91st birthday; this special anniversary was an opportunity for the estate manager, Gilbert Tegeler, to award an additional special scholarship, which would certainly have been in the spirit of the donor. Lydia Steffen was a great admirer of jazz music. She died in June 2021 and wanted to specifically and effectively support students and graduates of the Jazz Institute of Berlin (JIB) at the UdK Berlin through the prize. Thanks to the generous commitment of our members, Toni and Dr. Albrecht Kumm, the Friends Circle can already award the annual jazz prize to students of the Jazz Institute of Berlin (JIB) for the 13th time. This is worth 6,000 euros. The JIB Jazz Prize has been awarded annually since 2014 to support young, outstanding jazz musicians at the Jazz Institute of Berlin (JIB) at the UdK Berlin. The jury meeting for the award ceremonies will take place on November 17, 2026, with the artistic directors of JIB, Prof. Heinrich Köbberling and Prof. Paulo Morello, and music journalist Ulf Drechsel, in the presence of the donor couple, Toni and Dr. Albrecht Kumm. The outstanding musical performance was the deciding factor for both awards. Nominations from candidates by the heads of the Jazz Institute of Berlin are required for the awards. The concerts by the winners will be broadcast in the near future by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb).
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Friends Circle of the University of Arts Berlin | Karl Hofer Society e.V.
For 70 years, the Friends Circle of the UdK Berlin | Karl Hofer Society has been active thanks to its diverse civic engagement. A non-profit association with around 400 members. The main task of the association is to support students and graduates of the University of Arts Berlin as effectively as possible. To this end, the Karl Hofer Scholarships, worth a total of 25,000 euros, are awarded annually to current UdK graduates since 2018. This renews the association's former Atelier program, which in the 1980s and 1990s facilitated the entry of numerous young artists into professional life. Many of the over 300 beneficiaries, such as Julius von Bismarck, Julian Charrière, Rainer Fetting, Alicja Kwade, Susanne Lorenz, or Helmut Middendorf, are now internationally recognized. Members and guests of the society have numerous opportunities to get to know artists personally, visit studios, participate in rehearsals, concerts, exhibition openings, and specially planned activities, and purchase items from the archive of the Karl Hofer Society at particularly favorable prices. In this way, the Karl Hofer Society is able to sustainably promote art and maintain a lively exchange between artists and art enthusiasts.
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