Musical Belongings V
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| 16 € / reduced 8 € |
| 6 pm: Introduction |
| Duration: 120 min |
| No language skills required |
| Ground Floor, Hall 2 |
| Part of: Musical Belongings |
TALKING DRUMS: NIGERIA
lautten compagney BERLIN feat. ARA – Queen of Drums & Band
The lautten compagney BERLIN explores the possibilities of music beyond the colonial canon with their project TALKING DRUMS: NIGERIA. The project critically examines the unchallenged perpetuation of broad labels like “African music.” The methods of so-called “early music” from Europe reveal parallels to West African performance practices, as exemplified by techniques such as ostinato/riff, call and response, and hoketus/interlocking. These shared origins and differences will be explored in a one-week workshop and two concerts on May 2 and 3, 2025, at the Humboldt Forum.
At the heart of the project are two musical traditions: the music of the Yoruba people in Nigeria, with its highly developed percussion culture, and the compositions of Charles Ignatius Sancho, who in the late 18th century became the first Black composer to perform in London and exercise the right to vote in Britain.
Among the musicians who keep the rich heritage of the TALKING DRUMS alive is Aralola Olamuyiwa, also known as ARA, celebrated as the “Queen of the Talking Drums.” Recognized as the first Nigerian woman to gain worldwide recognition in the male-dominated world of percussion, she also serves as a cultural ambassador for the Ooni of Ife and the Yoruba culture. Ara is not only a drummer but also a singer and entertainer. She will be joined in Berlin by a three-member percussion ensemble featuring the Bata, Omele, and Dundun drums.
The so-called “talking drums” of West African cultures were traditionally tools of daily communication, often functioning as message drums capable of mimicking the pitch patterns of tonal languages. Today, the drums are more ritually integrated, holding significant religious and ceremonial roles.
The German singer Julienne Mbodjé lends depth to the hybrid composition through her own musical contribution, drawing from a wide repertoire of both classical and contemporary music traditions. The contemporary interpretation and queer reading of Yoruba mythology play a major role in the literary work of Logan February. Born in 1999 in Anambra, Nigeria, this poet and essayist will reflect on songs and stories from the talking drum tradition, exploring their linguistic character through their texts and reflections.
PROGRAM
I. ORIGINS
Lakiti – Yoruba Folk Song
Babalawo – Yoruba Folk Song
Ginnie pug or Strawberries and cream / Lumps of Pudding – John Playford (1623-1686/7)
Sweetsounding / Süßtönend – ARA (Aralola Olamuyiwa *1975), Text: Logan February (*1999)
Oshun Yemoja – ARA, Arr. Bo Wiget (*1971)
II. HYBRIDS
Gedegbe – ARA
Dance & Song Suite I – Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780), Arr. Bo Wiget
1. All of one Mind
2. The Complaint
3. Minuet the Eleventh (Aria)
4. Sweetest Bard
Omo Yoruba – ARA, Arr. Bo Wiget
Ignatius Sancho: A Man of Letters – Text: Logan February
Dance & Song Suite II – Ignatius Sancho, Arr. Bo Wiget
1. 2 Menuette mit Horn
2. Anacreon Ode
3. Tant Pis
4. Kate of Aberdeen
5. Sultana
Play – Orombo Folk Song, Text and Music: ARA, Arr. Bo Wiget
III. FUSIONS
Iya – Ayo Bankole (1936-1976), Arr. Bo Wiget
Youn – Mother Song – ARA, Arr. Bo Wiget
Clapping Music / Yoruba Bell – Steve Reich (*1936), Arr. Wolfgang Katschner
Ara Murere – ARA, Arr. Bo Wiget
Stillbirth, Yemọja – Text: Logan February
Ara De – ARA, Arr. Bo Wiget
CONTRIBUTORS
Lola Olamuyiwa, popularly known as “Ara” the Queen of Culture, is the first female talking drummer of international repute. She has revolutionized the art of drumming by breaking an age-long African tradition that restricted drumming to men. Ara’s performances are filled with passion, electrifying dance, powerful singing, mesmerizing drumming, and captivating stage theatrics, enchanting her audience and leaving them wanting more.
She has performed alongside international superstars across the globe, from Nigeria to the USA, Jamaica, India, United Kingdom, China, France, Ghana, Canada, Spain, and more. Notably, Ara recorded and performed with the legendary Stevie Wonder on his album “A Time to Love”.
Ara has also shared the stage with renowned artists such as Wyclef Jean, Wizkid, Davido, Wesley Snipes, All-4-One, Femi Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Angélique Kidjo, Teni, Olamide, Tiwa Savage, Seun Kuti, D’banj, 2Baba, Made Kuti, and many more.
She is a recipient of numerous awards both locally and internationally.
Fondly referred to as “The Queen of Culture”, Ara is the founder and CEO of the Ara Drum Heritage Center. When not on stage, she is passionately committed to promoting the beauty of African culture and tradition and is dedicated to nurturing female talents in the art of drumming.
Her unique ability to blend the talking drum into various genres of music ranging from Afrobeat, Afrobeats, Salsa, Reggae, Dancehall, and Classical is truly remarkable.
Julienne Mbodjé, who grew up in the north of Lower Saxony, studied at the HfM Berlin, Musikhochschule Freiburg and the ESMUC Barcelona (opera/song/concert).
Her operatic roles include ‘Clarice’ in G. Rossini’s LA PIETRA DEL PARAGONE, ‘Fidalma’ in D. Cimarosa’s IL MATRIMONIO SEGRETO and ‘Dinah’ in L. Bernstein’s
TROUBLE IN TAHITI (Freiburg). In 2022 Julienne made her debut at the Schlossfestspiele Ettlingen in the role of ‘Carmen’ (G. Bizet). The young singer works freelance with renowned musicians such as Hans-Christoph Rademann, Frieder Bernius and Justin Doyle at home and abroad. The great oratorios by Bach and Handel are part of her regular repertoire. 2017 a CD recording of Telemann’s ‘Seliges Erwägen’ with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the NDR and the Aparté label at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg.
She regularly performs with ensembles such as the Akademie für alte Musik and the Ensemble Recherche.
She has been a permanent member of the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin since January 2023.
Sesan is a professional drummer who plays traditional drums such as (Àpàlà) the talking drum, Omele drum, Sákárà and the Îyà Ìlù. He has been a member of the Ara Entertainment Productions for over 20 years.
Gbade is a professional drummer who plays drums such as Jembe, Conga, Àpàlà (talking drum), Omele drum and Shekere. He has been a member of the Ara Entertainment Productions for over twenty years.
Adeniyi Olawale Shittu, better known by his stage name Neyo Omele, is an exceptionally versatile percussionist who plays Omele drums, Talking Drums, Bata drums, and other Yoruba drums. He has been a member of the Ara Entertainment Productions band for over 15 years.
Logan February, born in 1999 in Anambra, Nigeria, is a non-binary poet, essayist, singer, songwriter, and LGBTQ activist. In addition to publications in literary journals, Logan has released three poetry collections—How to Cook a Ghost (2017), Painted Blue with Saltwater (2018), Garlands (2019)—and the poetry book In the Nude (2019), which have been partially translated into Spanish, Italian, and Dutch. In 2020, Logan February was awarded the Future Awards Africa Prize for Literature. In the spring of 2024, the anthology Mental Voodo was published in German, English, and Yoruba by Engler Verlag. In 2024, Logan February has been a fellow in the DAAD Berlin Artists Program and has performed in Berlin at the Afrolution Festival, the African Book Festival, the ILB, the Poetry Festival, and at the Literarisches Colloquium. 2025 he is poet in residence in the Humboldt Forum, fundet by the Programm “Weltoffenes Berlin”.
A lutenist by training, Wolfgang Katschner founded the lautten compagney BERLIN together with Hans-Werner Apel in 1984, the centrepiece of his multifaceted work as a musician, organiser and researcher in the sound worlds of “early music”.
On CDs, Wolfgang Katschner and his ensemble present themselves as border crossers; alongside world premiere recordings of operas such as “Didone abbandonata” are unusual combinations of composers: Philipp Glass and Tarquinio Merula (“Timeless”), Heinrich Schütz and Friedrich Hollaender (“War & Peace”) and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Astor Piazzolla (“Misterio”). Each of these programmes stands for the conviction that “early” music is just as modern as music written later and, once one steps out of one’s self-imposed isolation as a musician of “early” music, can be combined with modern repertoire in an extremely profitable way for musicians and audiences alike.
For some years now, Wolfgang Katschner has also been successfully appearing as a guest conductor at German opera houses. In 2012-2016 he was musical director of the Winter in Schwetzingen; after guest appearances in Bonn (Handel’s “Rinaldo” and “Giulio Cesare”) and Oldenburg (Hasse’s “Siroe”), he was responsible for several opera productions at the Nuremberg State Theatre: “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria”, “Serse”, “La Calisto” and “Bajazet”. Most recently, Katschner conducted Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” at the Semperoper Dresden.
Wolfgang Katschner is also increasingly involved in the training of young artists. He was a guest professor at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, at the Sing-Fest in Hong Kong, artist in residence at BarockVokal in Mainz and worked with singers at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Weimar in 2018 and 2019.
Christian Filips is a poet, music dramaturge, director and translator. He studied philosophy, literature and musicology in Vienna and Berlin. Since 2006 he has been working as a freelance author, director and music dramaturge for the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, for the lautten compagney BERLIN and for the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, among others. As a music dramaturge, he specializes in hybrid formats combining early and contemporary music, literature, performance and action art. As a theater maker, he has developed immersive productions for urban space together with partners in Mumbai and Nairobi. As a translator, he collaborated with the Arab-German collective WIESE (Wie es ist) / مرج (for Hamburger Bahnhof, among others). Filips is currently working with poets Logan February (Nigeria) and Lionel Fogarty (Australia) on the project POESIE DEKOLONIE with Engeler Verlag. The first volume published was “Mental Voodoo: Gedichte“ by Logan February. In April 2023 he curated the festival for world literature POETICA 8 at the University of Cologne. In August 2023, he received the Erlangen Literature Prize for Poetry in Translation. Most recently, the poetry collection Im Traum die Auskunft sagt: Hier! Selected poems 1996-2022 was published by Engeler Verlag.
Oboe – Eduard Wesly
Blockflöte – Martin Ripper
Horn – Elliot Seidman
Violin – Andreas Pfaff, Yumiko Tsubaki
Viola – Ulrike Paetz
Violoncello – Bo Wiget
Double Bass – Annette Rheinfurth
Theorbo / Baroque guitar – Hans Werner Apel
Theorbo / Renaissance guitar / Baroque guitar – Max Hattwich
Lute / Musical Director – Wolfgang Katschner
Percussion – Peter A. Bauer
The lautten compagney BERLIN under the direction of Wolfgang Katschner is one of the most renowned early music orchestras. In the 39 years since its founding in 1984, it has delighted music lovers all over the world. In autumn 2019, it was awarded the OPUS Klassik as Ensemble of the Year. It sets unique musical accents with concerts, opera performances and crossover projects. The ensemble is one of the few independent producers of music theatre projects in Germany. For its unusual and innovative programmes, it is appreciated by audiences as well as national and international critics. In addition to its performances in Berlin, the lautten compagney tours Germany, Europe and the world with about 100 concerts a year. The last major non-European tours took them to ten cities in China in 2019 and to Bogotá in Colombia in autumn 2021. The lautten compagney recently performed the acclaimed premiere of Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” at the Semperoper in Dresden, the first guest ensemble to do so in the opera house’s recent history.
The lautten compagney cultivates musical traditions as an important part of its programme spectrum with great repertoire works. Wolfgang Katschner and his ensemble are not only curious about music, but also about new ways of presenting it in concert. The lautten compagney has found its own individual platform for experimentation with the :lounge format, among others. Here it demonstrates that early music and contemporary music can indeed be combined. In the :lounge, live sampling and sounds enrich the timbres of the baroque instruments and offer space for surprising improvisations. When old works are inspired by new ideas in this way, musical boundaries disappear.
The MUSICAL BELONGINGS project is funded by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) as part of the “Excellent Orchestral Landscape Germany” program. Logan February is funded by the ‘Weltoffenes Berlin’ programme of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.
