The Orchestre National de Jazz was created in 1986 by the French Ministry of Culture as a strong political statement of its desire to recognize jazz and its ever-expanding musical output.
This unique orchestra has seen 12 successive musical and artistic directors, welcomed nearly 200 soloists and invited numerous international artists, performed in concert on every continent and recorded 33 albums. Throughout its history, the ONJ has played a major role in the development of jazz and improvised music, offering a vast panorama of French creation.

At the helm of the ONJ since January 2019, Frédéric Maurin is implementing a project of great openness, reflected in an active policy of commissions and collaborations with composers with singular aesthetics, associate artists, as well as personalities from other fields of the performing arts.

Each program encourages experimentation with forms and formats thanks to a variable geometry, intergenerational orchestra, made up of around forty French and foreign musicians. In five years of activity, the ONJ under the direction of Frédéric Maurin has created four programs – Dance in your head(s) (orchestration Fred Pallem), Rituals(compositions Ellinoa, Sylvaine Hélary, Leïla Martial, Grégoire Letouvet, Frédéric Maurin) Ex Machina (compositions Steve Lehman, Frédéric Maurin – Ircam-Centre Pompidou co-production), Frame by Frame i> (arrangements Airelle Besson, Sylvaine Hélary, Sarah Murcia, Frédéric Maurin) – and the first show for young audiences in the history of the orchestra Dracula (texts Estelle Meyer, Milena Csergo, Julie Bertin, Romain Maron / compositions Grégoire Letouvet, Frédéric Maurin / directed by Julie Bertin).