Portugal em Jazz is a project that has been designed by Associação Sons da Lusofonia with the support of the Portuguese Government – Ministry of Culture and the Directorate-General for the Arts (DGARTES) and derived from the years of work by ASL with Festa do Jazz.

Amongst the main goals of the project „Portugal em Jazz“ are mapping improvised music in Portugal; stimulating the musical creation; promoting the works of young composers and musicians; revisiting the works of established Portuguese composers and musicians in the area of jazz; fostering educational approaches and contents and facilitating the access to them; reflecting about the process of creation and appreciating the improvised music in Portugal as well as developing and implementing projects connected to it. In this sense, the project will be developed with 4 fields of action:

- Composition Prize Bernardo Sassetti: not only will this prize be a hommage to one of the most relevant Portuguese musicians and composers, but it will also encourage the development of competences in the area of jazz composition for young Portuguese composers. The new works that will be awarded with this prize will be interpreted by the Ensemble Portugal em Jazz, that will be founded within the framework of the project.

- Website www.portugalemjazz.pt: creation of a new online platform that accompanies the development of the project; gathering useful information about the activities of institutions linked to jazz; serving as a forum to discuss topics that are relevant to the artistic and educational jazz community; promoting artists, projects, publications and other activities related to improvised music.

- National Encounter of Jazz Schools: Following the work that has been developed by the Festa do Jazz and its jazz school contest, „Portugal em Jazz“ will organize regional encounters of various jazz schools all over the country. These encounters will include musical workshops held by established musicians of the Portuguese jazz scene. This will be an opportunity for students of improvised music to access unique educational and artistic content that will complement the musical education of the participating schools. Apart from the teaching component, this activity will nourish the exchange and the relation between different teaching institutions, foster a better understanding of different teaching methods by the students themselves and stimulate the creation of interpersonal and artistic relationships.

- Advanced training in the area of production, communication & marketing and different aspects of musical enjoyment: apart from the technical and artistic capacities that an instrumentalist should develop during the learning process of studying at institutions of musical education it gets more and more important to also understand the techniques and tools in the area of production, communication and marketing in order to develop artistic projects. The notion of musical enjoyment is also an important element, not only in the work field of creation and composing, but also from the audience`s perspective for a better perception of the audience.