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 third event, we are delighted to welcome British-Afro-Caribbean singer, movement artist, and composer Elaine Mitchener (b. 1970) from London, UK. Before her Music Talk with Harald Kisiedu, moderated by Musa Okwonga, we will have the pleasure to attend a live performance by the artist.
 

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.
 

Dr. 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).
 

22.11.2025, 7 PM: Live Performance by Elaine Mitchener & Music Talk with Harald Kisiedu, moderated by Musa Okwonga

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.