Volker Doberstein

Volker Doberstein (*1965) studied political science at the University of Heidelberg and was employed in the advertising and finance industry. He later worked as a cultural journalist and ghostwriter and is the author of novels, short story collections, plays and song lyrics and close artistic collaborations with composer Stephan Marc Schneider and actor August Zirner. He has been the artistic project developer of the Enjoy Jazz Festival since 2020. 

Enjoy Jazz, founded 1999 by Rainer Kern, is the largest jazz festival in Germany, with up to 70 events per year (concerts, workshops, symposia, readings and other formats) and its own educational program, which Volker Doberstein was instrumental in developing. The festival covers the entire Rhine-Neckar European Metropolitan Region with the anchor cities of Heidelberg, Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. Productions at the festival have been awarded important awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. The motto of last year's Enjoy Jazz Festival was Healing (in an overall social context) with numerous conceptually linked projects on the theme of Well-being. Since 2023, Enjoy Jazz has been cooperating with the education branch of Carnegie Hall on the topic and organized the first authorized Well-being concert according to the guidelines of Carnegie Hall, largely co-developed by Prof. Nisha Sajnani (NYU, consultant to the WHO), who hosted the Enjoy Jazz Well-being concert with renowned pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, a South African healer trained in the Sangoma tradition. 

Together with festival director Rainer Kern, Volker Doberstein also is responsible for the transformation of Enjoy Jazz towards a comprehensively sustainable festival, laid the foundations for Enjoy Jazz's sustainability strategy and is responsible for the festival's bidding management.