The partnership between Guimarães Jazz and ESMAE, unanimously considered a Portuguese reference institution in the teaching of jazz, has established itself over the years as one of the festival’s matrixial projects and provided its audience countless moments of great musical quality. Started in its current format in 2012, this project continues to propose a residency and a plan of collaborative work between the students and members of the ESMAE Orchestra and a group of international musicians with a relevant curriculum in the field of jazz music. In 2024 this residency will be directed by the talented Italian pianist Tommaso Perazzo, a musician of enormous potential who performed at the festival in 2023 alongside the historical bassist Buster Williams. Accompanying Perazzo will be a group of emerging musicians from the international jazz circuit, all of them instrumentalists of high musical competence: Marcello Cardillo (who also performed in the same memorable Buster Williams concert mentioned above) on the drums; the meteoric British trumpeter Alex Ridout; Philadelphian saxophonist Dylan Band; and, lastly, young Gavin Gray on double-bass.