Nikki Iles Joins NDR Bigband as Principal Conductor for 2025/2026 Season

British bandleader, pianist, and composer Nikki Iles will be the new Principal Conductor of the NDR Bigband from the 2025/26 season. She succeeds Geir Lysne and will lead the renowned ensemble for an initial period of two years. 

Nikki Iles, who attracted attention in 2020 as a participant in the NDR Bigband's podium for composers and arrangers, has been appointed composer-in-residence of the ensemble in 2023. The joint album 'Face to Face', which resulted from this close collaboration, delighted audiences and critics alike and was nominated for the German Jazz Award in 2024.

For her debut on 27 September in Hannover (NDR Konzerthaus) and on 28 September in Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie), Nikki Iles will bring her new work 'The Shadow of a Dream - Journeys through a Strange World', which was composed especially for the NDR Bigband. 

Together with the NDR Bigband, the new chief conductor will present a high-calibre subscription programme in Hamburg and Hanover. Nikki Iles has curated three programmes and invited soloists such as singer Norma Winstone, Canadian sisters Ingrid and Christine Jensen and bass legend Dave Holland. 

About her first project, 'The Shadow of a Dream - Journeys through a Strange World' (27/28 September 2025), Nikki Iles says: 'In this programme I have focused on themes of unity - how important it is to find empathy and common ground despite the challenges we face.

Together with trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and saxophonist Christine Jensen, Nikki Iles brings Canadian soundscapes to life. She is joined by Canadian pianist Kris Davis, whose percussive piano playing is a delightful complement to the Jensens' lyrical style and the power of the NDR Big Band. The theme: 'Luminescent Landscapes' (14/15 February 2026).

Spinning the Wheeler' could be the title of the third programme, curated by Nikki Iles. Here, all participants will continue to spin their experiences with a brilliant musician: Kenny Wheeler (1930-2014), the 'master of melancholy chaos'. Iles has recruited two jazz legends for the project: singer Norma Winstone and bassist and Miles Davis sideman Dave Holland (20/21 June 2025).

In the concert season 2025/26 ,the NDR Bigband will be working with Danilo Pérez, Wayne Shorter's longtime pianist, the Hamburg band TOYTOY and the Cologne jazz trumpeter Frederik Köster, and will be celebrating the 100th birthday of Miles Davis.

In the broadcasting area, the NDR Big Band also takes its productions to hidden corners and is a guest at important festivals such as the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Travejazz in Lübeck, Jazzfest Delmenhorst and JazzBaltica. 

The NDR Big Band also gives young musicians a chance: it is touring three schools in the broadcasting area and is now working with the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Advance ticket sales for the Hamburg subscription series begin on 3 April, and for individual tickets for the Hamburg concerts on 13 May. Subscriptions for the Hanover concerts will go on sale on 16 May, with individual tickets available from 19 May. For more information and the full programme, visit ndr.de/bigband.

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