Django Reinhardt NY Festival to Celebrate 25th Anniversary With Milestone Concert At Sony Hall

The historic Django Reinhardt NY Festival will celebrate its milestone 25th Anniversary with a special concert at Sony Hall on November 13th at 8pm. The celebration will feature the Django Festival Allstars-composed of some of the world's most beloved French gypsy jazz artists-joined by the supremely gifted American jazz singer Veronica Swift and special guest clarinetist Ken Peplowski.

This 2025 celebration concert will take the place of this year's annual Django Reinhardt NY Festival, which will resume its week-long format in November 2026.

The Django Festival Allstars features the dazzling gypsy guitar legend Samson Schmitt, accordion and accordina maestro Ludovic Beier, the exceptional jazz and classical violinist Pierre Blanchard, the sought-after gypsy rhythm guitar specialist Francko Mehrstein, and the rock-solid bassist Antonio Licusati. Following their NYC concert, Veronica Swift will join the Allstars for a twelve-city U.S. tour to further celebrate a quarter-century of Django Reinhardt NY Festival artistry and herald a new Django Festival Allstars album soon to be announced by the Grammy-winning Motéma label.

About the Django Reinhardt NY Festival

Founded in 2000 by Ettore Stratta and Pat Philips, the historic Django Reinhardt NY Festival's annual sold-out residencies at Birdland quickly became an anticipated feature of New York's fall jazz calendar. It was the first Django festival in the area and did much to expand the popularity of the niche 'Gypsy Jazz' genre-also called 'Hot Jazz'-to a wider group of modern New York City jazz fans and beyond. The style was first made famous by Django Reinhardt with Stephane Grappelli in Paris in the 1930s and 1940s.

Stratta and Philips launched the festival in 2000 with top-tier European gypsy jazz stars, which was recorded by Atlantic Records. Soon after, Sinti guitar legend Dorado Schmitt emerged as a festival fan favorite, surrounded by Samson Schmitt (Dorado's eldest son, then 21 and playing rhythm guitar) and Ludovic Beier on accordion and accordina (in his early 20s). These young artists gained stature year by year, becoming gypsy jazz stars in their own right alongside the master.

In 2018, at the Festival's "Forever Django" Carnegie Hall event, Dorado Schmitt passed the lead guitar chair to his son Samson. The current lineup has developed a tight bond and is strongly committed to touring worldwide, having just inked a deal with Motéma.

Current Tour Momentum

Entering their winter 2025 tour, the Allstars are riding a new career high, having performed this past year in 18 cities in the US and France, successfully breaking new ground on the mainstage of the prestigious Festival Django Reinhardt in Fontainebleau, France, and Jazz at Lincoln Center's Dizzy's Club for four sold-out nights of "hot jazz" fireworks this past July.

The Allstars look forward to their Sony Hall performance with Veronica Swift, a longtime Django Reinhardt NY Festival collaborator whose dynamic voice and remarkable vocal artistry promise to bring exciting new dimensions to the proceedings. Adding further excitement will be clarinetist Ken Peplowski plus other surprise guests from the festival's twenty-five-year history.

Buy Tickets Here

• Nov 13 - Sony Hall, New York, NY
• Nov 14 - City College Workshop, New York, NY
• Nov 16 - The Dakota, Minneapolis, MN
• Nov 18 - Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, AZ
• Nov 19 - Scripps Research Auditorium, San Diego, CA
• Nov 20 - The Raymond Kabaaz Theater, Los Angeles, CA
• Nov 21 - The Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara, CA
• Nov 22 - Healdsburg Festival, Healdsburg, CA
• Nov 23 - Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay, CA
• Nov 28 - The Center for the Arts, Grass Valley, CA
• Nov 30 - SF JAZZ, San Francisco, CA
• Dec 1 - Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz, CA