Cultural activism

contemporary, improvised, jazz, world cross-over

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Cultural activism

VOLFEST • worldmusic series and festival in Vollenhove Zeist

VOLbeat • workshop, make music with your mobile

Maintaining a dynamic schedule as a soloist, composer, producer, bandleader, teacher, and curator, I am committed to serving the community through the arts. To engage the music-hungry fanbase in the Utrecht area, I launched festivals and concert series, creating platforms that bring people together and celebrate the transformative power of music.

Since the pandemic, my artistic activities have increasingly focused on social issues, bearing witness to them and actively engaging with them. Now is the time to be involved in the community—I start local and with my art. By connecting people through the arts, I seek to foster a deep respect for humanity and cultivate a vision for a better future.

Mark My Worlds
Past en recent activities:

 

  • 1993-1994; Organizer and co-founder of the first ‘Utrechts Jazz Treffen’ Festival

 

 

  • 2007 – 2011; Programmer of a weekly  improv concert series ‘u-ex(perimental)‘ at the SJU Jazzpodium and Centraal Museum, Utrecht

 

 

 

  • 2016 – now; Director of the Festival ‚Jazz Op De Sofa’, Zeist. (somethimes featuring masterclasses and composition assignments)

 

 

  • 2018; Curator of the ‘Taipei International Improvisation Music Festival’ (TIIMF), Taiwan. Edition ‘Focus On Holland’

 

  • 2019, Initiator of the BIM Podium Prijs 2019. An award by the Union Of Improvising Musicians (BIM Pro) for a venue.

 

 

  • 2020/21; Curator of Mark My Wor(l)ds concert series in collaboration with Museum Speelklok Utrecht

 

  • 2020/21; GIST! A collective of Utrecht based artists with a festival and concert series

 

  • 2021-now; VOLfest. A monthly world-music concert series at the Vollenhove flats, Zeist

 

  • 2021-2024; Jazzcafé Zeist. A monthly jazz concert at the castle Of Zeist.

 

 

  • 2025; initiated the workhop VOLbeat. Lessons for teenagers in how to make music with your mobile.

 

Band Members

Wakaba Otsu/Mark Lotz

Wakaba Otsu/Mark Lotz

Wakaba Otsu/Mark Lotz

Wakaba Otsu/Mark Lotz

Wakaba Otsu/Mark Lotz

More projects

All
  • All
  • As leader
  • As sideman
  • Past projects
Michiel van Bakel Art

Mark Lotz & Michiel van Bakel

Moldavia Calls

Moldavia Calls

Marieke Snijders, Marco van Os, Mark Lotz

‘m-m-m’

Scorpionfish1

A Dutch View On Fish

IstanPOOL

IstanPOOL

Istanbul

Korhan Erel & Mark Lotz

Istanbul

Mark Lotz & Islak Köpek

Kamil Erdem Quartet

Kamil Erdem Quartet

Pendant La Nuit

Pendant La Nuit

mWWm

Three Basses and a Flute