For more than 75 years, the peerless Metropole Orkest has been creating uplifting shows with the world's leading music artists in the genres of jazz, pop, electronica and world music. It has both a traditional big band line-up and an orchestral version of close to 100 members. For the opening concert of the Bridging Europe Festival, we can look forward to a 60-member incarnation of the orchestra performing brand new pieces from the pens of Vince Mendoza, Donny McCaslin, Cory Wong, Mark Guiliana and Morris Kliphuis, under the baton of the orchestra's permanent guest conductor Miho Hazama.

The objective of Metropole Orkest remains unchanged since it was founded in Hilversum in 1945: to transmit to people a feeling of joy and liberty. The musicians were recruited from various countries across Europe, and soon the fame of the orchestra spread beyond the boundaries of both the Netherlands and Europe as a whole. Their first principal conductor, Dolf van der Linden, occupied the orchestra pulpit unti 1980, and was responsible for laying the foundations of the orchestra's success. In 2005, Vince Mendoza became their first American conductor. The Metropole Orkest have released more than 150 albums. Their concerts and records have featured artists of the calibre of Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Pat Metheny, Brian Eno, Herbie Hancock, Bono, Caro Emerald, Snarky Puppy, Gregory Porter and Robert Glasper. They have completed a wealth of film scores and TV and radio broadcasts. They can also boast four Grammy awards and a further 21 nominations. Their current permanent guest conductor has also been nominated: Miho Hazama, a Japanese native of New York, has been mentioned as a worthy successor to Maria Schneider and Jim McNeely. We can now look forward to live renditions - in most cases for the first time - of large-band jazz pieces commissioned by the orchestra and typically inspired by pop and funk.

The Bridging Europe Festival is sponsored by the Embassy of the Netherlands.