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.
 
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 four hybrid event formats, Harald Kisiedu will enter a personal dialog with each guest. 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.
 
For the second event the French-German scholar and dramaturge for music, opera, theatre and performance art Dr. Dr. Daniele G. Daude and three musicians of the classical string ensemble The String Archestra from Berlin will perform selected works by Ayanna Witter-Johnson (b. 1985, UK), William Grant Still (1895–1978, USA) and Fela Sowande (1905–1987, Nigeria). Afterwards Daniele G. Daude will join a music talk with musicologist Dr. Harald Kisiedu moderated by Jomoke Olusanmi. Daniele G. 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.
 

  #Harald Kisiedu Harald Kisiedu is a historical musicologist, author, and saxophonist who received his PhD in historical musicology from Columbia University. He also holds a graduate degree in political science and German studies from the University of Hamburg. His research interests include Afrodiasporic classical and experimental music, jazz as a global phenomenon, improvisation, music and politics, and Wagner. Kisiedu’s writings have appeared in the WIRE, Grove Dictionary of American Music, Critical Studies in Improvisation, Journal der Künste, and Darmstädter Beiträge zur Jazzforschung a. o. He has taught at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig, the Musik-Akademie Basel, the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück, the British and Irish Modern Music Institute Hamburg, and the Darmstadt Summer Course. As a saxophonist, Kisiedu has performed with Branford Marsalis, George Lewis, Henry Grimes, Jean-Paul Bourelly, and Hannibal Lokumbe and has recorded with the New York-based ensemble Burnt Sugar, the Arkestra Chamber led by Greg Tate. He is the author of European Echoes: Jazz Experimentalism in Germany, 1950-1975 (Wolke) and the co-editor (with George E. Lewis) of Composing While Black: Afrodiasporische Neue Musik Heute/Afrodiasporic New Music Today (also Wolke Verlag).    

Daniele G. Daude

Dr. Dr. Daniele G. Daude is a French-German scholar and dramaturge. After graduating with honors in violin and chamber music from the Conservatoire National (Aubervilliers region), Daniele G. Daude studied musicology in Paris and opera direction at Hanns Eisler. Daniele G. Daude completed their first doctorate in theatre studies at the Freie Universität Berlin in 2011, specializing in performance analysis, and their second doctorate in musicology at the Université Paris 8 in 2013, specializing in opera analysis. Since 2008 Daniele G. Daude has been teaching at German and French universities. 2013-2015 Daniele G. Daude is Visiting Professor of Performing Arts at the Campus Caribéen des Arts (Martinique). 2016-2020 Daniele G. Daude is Maître* de Conferences for Aesthetics and Philosophie. Daniele G. Daude founded and leaded the community Choir Com Chor Berlin (2013-2023) and founded The String Archestra(2016-) to perform works by Black, Indigenous and PoC composers that have been erased from a canonical musical historiography and a standardized concert repertoire. In 2021, The String Archestra received the TONALi Award for its longstanding work. Daniele G. Daude has been working as a lecturer, and dramaturge for concert, opera and theatre since 2016, currently teaching at Berlin Universität der Künste.

  #July 5, 2025, 7 PM: Live Performance by Daniele G. Daude & The String Archestra and Music Talk with Daniele G. Daude & Harald Kisiedu, moderated by Jumoke Olusanmi   Entrance 10,- EUR (Students: free entry) Sorry, the event is BOOKED OUT ! Limited seats available. Please reserve via: reservation@m-bassy.org   The project series is funded by the Musikstadtfonds of the Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg as well as by the GVL.