Porgy & Bess

The program includes musicians, country and city portraits, sessions and workshops, but also special events such as "Jazz for Kids" or the presentation of ensembles from the Asiatic region of the former Soviet Union.

Porgy & Bess was initiated by the versatile Swiss musician Mathias Rüegg who, in 1993, started this project in the former "Fledermaus Bar" – quite unique for the time and place: to invite internationally renowned jazz groups to Vienna.

In the course of a single year, Porgy & Bess became a fixture of the native and international jazz scene and in 2001 moved to new and attractive quarters. The rooms, by the way, have been used since the middle of the nineteenth century for professional and amateur theater groups...