M.Bassy is realizing the interdisciplinary music series »Composing While Black. Afrodiasporic New Music Today«, co-curated by the musicologist, author and saxophonist Harald Kisiedu, inviting the international composers, musicians, musicologists and cultural thinkers George E. Lewis, Daniele Daude & The String Archestra and Elaine Mitchener to Hamburg. The starting point of the project is the bilingual essay collection »Composing While Black. Afrodiasporische Neue Musik Heute | Afrodiasporic New Music Today«, edited by Kisiedu & Lewis in 2023. It focuses on the lives and works of contemporary composers from 1960 to the present who have been systematically overlooked by researchers, concert programmers and journalists, especially in Europe. The publication gives insight into the cultural power and creative range of Black protagonists in the field of New Music and to deconstruct the perception of this field as White.

The series at M.Bassy allows the audience to gain new perspectives on Afrodiasporic composers not only as participatory creative actors, but also as social figures within widely ramified, complexly networked communities in the ever-expanding universe of musical possibilities. In three hybrid event formats, Harald Kisiedu will enter a personal dialog with each guest under the moderation of journalist and musician Musa Okwonga. In music talks, joint listening sessions and experimental live music performances, we will develop new perceptions on a multisensory of Afrodiasporic New Music as an intercultural, cross-generational space of innovation, contemporary discourse and identity building. The first event will be with the American composer, musicologist, and trombonist George E. Lewis who is also professor of American Music at Columbia University and currently fellow at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris working on »Finding the Sound of Freedom: Artificial Intelligence in Real-Time Musical Creativity«. He will be joined by Harald Kisiedu for a music talk, listening session and opera screening. For the second event the French-German scholar and dramaturge for music, opera, theatre & performance art Daniele Daude and furthermore, three musicians of the classical string ensemble The String Archestra from Berlin will play selected compositions before Daude joins a talk with Kisiedu afterwards. Daude founded The String Archestra in 2016 aiming to perform works by BIPoC composers which have completely disappeared both from canonical music historiography and from a standardized concert repertoire. For the third event, the audience is invited to an interdisciplinary live performance between music, sound, text, improvisation and body movement by vocalist, movement artist and composer Elaine Mitchener. Following this, the interdisciplinary artist and musician from London, UK will enter a conversation with Kisiedu about the history of Black being between sound and movement.
 

Harald Kisiedu

Harald Kisiedu is a musicologist, author and musician who completed his doctorate at Columbia University. New York, USA and now lives in Hamburg. His main areas of interest include jazz as a global phenomenon, classical and experimental music of the African diaspora, music and politics, improvisation and Wagner. As a saxophonist, he has performed with Branford Marsalis, George E. Lewis, Henry Grimes, Hannibal Lokumbe and Champion Jack Dupree, among others. He was a lecturer at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Academy of Music and Theatre in Leipzig and at the Institute of Music at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. His book »European Echoes: Jazz Experimentalism in Germany: 1950-1975« was published in 2020. In 2023, together with George E. Lewis, he published the essay collection »Composing While Black. Afrodiasporic New Music Today«.

George E. Lewis

George E. Lewis (b. 1952) is an American composer, musicologist and trombonist. He is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University and Area Chair in Composition in the Department of Historical Musicology. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin. Other honors for Lewis include the Doris Duke Artist Award (2019), fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation (2002), and the Guggenheim Foundation (2015). He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971 and his work in electronic and computer-based music and multimedia installation, as well as notated and improvised formats, has been performed by ensembles worldwide. He is widely recognized as a pioneer of interactive computer music. His book »A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music« (2008) received the American Book Award and the American Culture Award from the American Musicological Society. Lewis and Benjamin Piekut are co-editors of the two-volume »Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies« (2016). Lewis has received honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh, New College of Florida and Harvard University. He is currently working as a fellow at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris on the project »Finding the Sound of Freedom: Artificial Intelligence in Real-Time Musical Creativity«.
 

Daniele G. Daude

Daniele G. Daude (Dr. Dr. phil.) is a scholar, violinist, choir conductor, and dramaturge. Daude graduated in 2001 with distinction (violin and chamber music) from the Conservatoire National (CNR) Région Aubervilliers. Daude received a PhD in Theatre Studies 2011 at the German Freie Universität and a PhD in Musicology 2013 at the French Université Paris 8 and teaches at German and French Universities since 2008. 2013-2015 Daude was Guest Professor of Department for Performing Arts at the Art University “Campus Caribéen des Arts” (Martinique). 2016 Daude founded The String Archestra to promote the work of Black, Indigenous and Composer of Color in German Classical Landscape. 2023 Daude has been the director of Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, a theatre for the international independent scene. Daude works as scholar, lecturer (currently at UdK, Berlin), dramaturge and curator.

The String Archestra

The String Archestra was founded in 2016 by the scholar and dramaturge Dr. Dr. Daniele G. Daude to promote the work of Black, Indigenous, and Composers of Color, who have been erased from concert repertories and canonical classical music history. In 2021, the String Archestra won the TONALi Award in the category “Umbruch” and performed at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. The String Archestra collaborates with a wide range of composers such as Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Anthony R. Green, Jessie Montgomery, MARIAMA, Shannon Sea, Shelly Phillips, Craig Harris, Philo Tsoungui.

Kodwo Eshun

Kodwo Eshun is a cultural theorist, writer and journalist. He studied English Literature at University College, University of Oxford, UK. His literary work »More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction« was published in 1998 (German edition »Heller als die Sonne: Abenteuer in Sonic Fiction« 1999), in which Eshun deals with electronic Afro-American music. In conjunction, the album »Architectronics«, produced with Franz Pomassl, was released. Together with Anjalika Sagar, Eshun founded the artist collective The Otolith Group in 2002. He writes regularly for magazines such as Frieze, The Wire and Sight and Sound. Furthermore, he is lecturer for »Aural and Visual Culture« at Goldsmiths University of London, UK. He specialises art and critical theory linking Black Studies, Anglophone Pan-Africanisms, the essay film and diasporic futurisms with contemporary musicality.

Elaine Mitchener

Elaine Mitchener (b. 1970) is a British Afro-Caribbean vocalist, movement artist and composer working between contemporary/experimental new music, free improvisation and visual art. She is currently a Wigmore Hall Associate Artist; was a DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Fellow (2022) and was an exhibiting artist in the British Art Show 9 (2021-22). In February 2022 Mitchener was awarded an MBE for Services to Music. She is founder of the collective electroacoustic unit The Rolling Calf (with Jason Yarde and Neil Charles). Her regular collaborators include composers as George E Lewis, Jennifer Walshe, visual artists Sonia Boyce and The Otolith Group; chamber ensembles Apartment House, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble MAM, Ensemble Klang, and Klangforum Wien; choreographer Dam van Huynh’s company; and experimental musicians such as Moor Mother, Loré Lixenberg, Saul Williams, Pat Thomas and David Toop. Recent performances include: Donaueschinger Musiktage, MaerzMusik, Baremboim-Said Akademie, Cafe Oto, Konzerthaus Wien, Radialsystem V, Centre Pompidou, Muziekgebouw, Darmstadt, ICA London, London Contemporary Music Festival, Korzo Theater, Royal Opera House, Barbican, November Music, Savvy Contemporary, Sons d’Hiver, Haus der Berliner Festspiele and the Cooper Gallery. While developing her own projects, Elaine continues to work as a collaborative and interpretive singer.

 

Event #1: Music Talk, Listening Session & Opera Screening with George E. Lewis & Harald Kisiedu, moderated by Musa Okwonga

February 15, 2025, 7 PM

Limited seats available. Please reserve via: reservation@m-bassy.org

Event #2: Live Performance by Daniele G. Daude & The String Archestra and Music Talk with Daniele G. Daude & Harald Kisiedu, moderated by Jumoke Olusanmi – July 5, 2025, 7 PM / Entrance 10,- EUR

Event #3: Music Talk & Listening Session with Kodwo Eshun & Harald Kisiedu

(date will be announced soon!)

Event #4: Live Performance & Music Talk with Elaine Mitchener & Harald Kisiedu – Nov 22, 2025, 7 PM

The project series is funded by the Musikstadtfonds of the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg as well as by the GVL.