This week’s programme (04.11.-10.11.2024) Always, Already There, which was conceived together with guest curator George E. Lewis, focuses on Afro-diasporic composers of contemporary music. A series of concerts, public rehearsals, workshops and lectures are intended to draw attention to a major gap in the current European music scene and encourage people to close it permanently.
Abb. oben: Douglas R. Ewart, „Eric Dolphy Sonic Dread“. Foto: Bruce Silcox
Europe has world-famous concert halls, renowned symphony orchestras and festivals for new music. None of them regularly include works by Afro-diasporic composers in their programmes. The fact that they are underrepresented in the performed repertoire, in musicological research and in journalistic reporting stands in stark contrast to their diversity and potential.
George E. Lewis, composer and professor of American music at Columbia University in New York, is coming to HKW as guest curator for Always, Already There. Lewis is also artistic director of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), whose members will be working at HKW as part of a one-week residency. Together with composers from Africa, Europe and the USA, they offer insights into the work of a new generation of music makers and exemplify the important role their music can play as an intercultural and cross-generational incubator for innovation.
The starting point of the project is the bilingual essay collection Composing While Black, edited by musicologist Harald Kisiedu and George E. Lewis. Afrodiasporische Neue Musik heute / Afrodiasporic New Music Today (2023), which focuses on the lives and works of contemporary composers from 1960 to the present day who have been systematically overlooked in the avant-garde.
Always, Already There includes lectures, panel discussions and concerts. A broad spectrum of chamber music, vocal works and electronic music will be performed. The programme invites you to discover and experience the diversity and complexity of Afro-diasporic contemporary music.
Participants:
Leila Adu-Gilmore, Jessie Cox, Daniele Daude, Jessica Ekomane, Douglas R. Ewart, Cedrik Fermont, Anthony R. Green, Satch Hoyt, Nyokabi Kariũki, Hannah Kendall, Andile Khumalo, Harald Kisiedu, George E. Lewis, Monthati Masebe, Elaine Mitchener, Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson, Shelly Phillips, Njabulo Phungula, Alyssa Regent, Corie Rose Soumah, Charles Uzor, Christina Wheeler, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Com Chor Berlin
WHEN?
Festival: Monday, 04 November 2024 – Sunday 10 November 2024
Programme:
Monday, 04 November 2024, 18:30-19:30
Introduction: Always, Already There
(George E. Lewis/Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung)
Tuesday, 05 November 2024, 18:30-20:00
Lecture: The Society of Black Composers
Harald Kisiedu, introduction by George E. Lewis.
Wednesday, 06 November 2024, 18:30-20:00
Panel: Decolonising Electronics
Cedrik Fermont, Christina Wheeler, Corie Rose Soumah, Jessica Ekomane, Leila Adu-Gilmore, moderated by George E. Lewis.
Thursday, 07 November 2024, 18:30-20:00
Panel: African Art Music Today
Monthati Masebe, Njabulo Phungula, Nyokabi Kariũki,
Moderation: Andile Khumalo.
20:30-22:00
Concert: Decolonial Electronics with
International Contemporary Ensemble
Music by Corie Rose Soumah, Satch Hoyt, Levy Lorenzo and Fay Victor, Cedrik Fermont, Christina Wheeler.
Friday, 08 November 2024, 18:30-20:00
Panel: Interdiscipline
Anthony R. Green, Elaine Mitchener, Douglas R. Ewart, Satch Hoyt, Moderation: George Lewis.
20:30-22:00
Concert: International Contemporary Ensemble
Composing While Black, Berlin Edition
Music by Alyssa Regent, Nyokabi Kariũki, Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson, Corie Rose Soumah, Hannah Kendall, Andile Khumalo, Leila Adu-Gilmore, Charles Uzor and Jessie Cox.
Saturday, 09 November 2024, 16:00-17:30
Panel: New Modes of Curation
Cedrik Fermont, Daniele Daude, Elaine Mitchener, Satch Hoyt, moderated by George E. Lewis.
18:30-20:00
Panel: Composing While Black I
Anthony R. Green, Monthati Masebe, Njabulo Phungula, Hannah Kendall, moderated by Jessie Cox.
20:30-22:00
Concert: International Contemporary Ensemble
Music by Douglas R. Ewart: Sonic Networks
Sunday, 10 November 2024, 18:30-20:00
Panel: Composing While Black II
Alyssa Regent, Andile Khumalo, Jalalu-Kalvert, Nelson, Charles Uzor, Corie Rose Soumah, moderated by Harald Kisiedu.
20:30-22:00
Concert: The Wide Open Mouth, Com Chor Berlin, conducted by Shelly Phillips and International Contemporary Ensemble
Music by Jessica Ekomane, Elaine Mitchener, Leila Adu-Gilmore, Fay Victor, Anthony R., Green, Monthati Masebe and Shelly Philips.
WHERE?
House of World Cultures (HKW)
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin
COST?
Concert tickets 13 EUR /10 EUR
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