Breaking through geographical and creative boundaries, three young Tomorrow’s Warriors musicians travelled from London to Belgium this spring for the third edition of BXL x LDN Interplay.

The Tomorrow’s Warriors collaboration with Brosella Festival in Brussels brings together three young musicians from London and teams them up with three musicians from Belgium, to create new music and gain experience playing on international stages in front of new audiences.

The 2026 cohort of musicians features, from London, saxophonists Lauren Breen and Donovan Haffner, alongside  Christ-Stéphane Boizi on trombone. Joining the Warrior emerging artists from Belgium were pianist Lorenzo Ola Kobina, Alice Sinephro on bass, and drummer Simon de Rover.

Under the guidance of artistic mentors, the cohort came together for a 3-day workshop to develop a series of new jazz compositions before performing their first concerts of this year’s programme at the Brosella Spring Festival and Muziekcentrum De Bijloke, Ghent.

As the newly formed sextet worked on their new compositions and discovered new collaborative approaches across their different styles of playing, they were mentored by Mercury Prize-nominated and Ivors Academy Award-winning (2018) Berlin/London-based composer, arranger, alto saxophonist, and Tomorrow’s Warriors alumna Cassie Kinoshi.

Working alongside Cassie as fellow project mentor was Tunisian-born jazz pianist and composer Wajdi Riahi, bringing a host of musical references from his North African heritage through to contemporary jazz. 

As they worked together through the first week of their collaboration, the musicians became aware of the creative difference in how they approach jazz composition. However, whilst this difference was very apparent at the beginning of the project, it seems that resolving how to blend the two approaches became the creative ‘glue’ as they worked together more closely. Chris-Stéphane Boizi explains:

“I really enjoyed how open the approach to composition was. At first it was quite interesting, because at Tomorrow’s Warriors – and generally in the UK – we often play within similar structures: head in, solos, head out. With this project, and perhaps more commonly in Europe, those structures can be played with and completely re-imagined, which I’d never really thought about before.

I came into the project feeling very open about my own compositions – how they could sound, feel, and be structured – and it worked incredibly well. I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The experience has given me new ideas about how I approach writing, even if those ideas might come across differently when performed in London. It’s something I really connected with and grew into by the end.”

Subsequent performances saw the sextet perform at Bricklane Jazz Festival, London and Jazz Middelheim, Antwerp. The project continues through summer 2026, with further performances including:

• 05th July Brosella Festival, Brussels

• 21st Aug Vortex, London

• 22nd Aug We Out Here Festival, Dorset

Photo: BXLxLDN Interplay by (c) Shamrock Raver