Always, Already There

Afro-diasporic Black composers continue to be underrepresented, if not completely absent, from the programs of major music festivals and orchestras. This is precisely why classical music urgently needs more openness and diversity, but also the institutional space to present these backgrounds, stories and, above all, the music to a broader public. These considerations are the starting point for the Always, Already There project at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in November 2024.

With the project, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, in collaboration with the International Contemporary Ensemble and other Afro-diasporic musicians, aims to enable precisely this publicity and attention and to bring together unique new perspectives on contemporary Afro-diasporic composers and musicians working between 1960 and today in the fields of opera, orchestra, chamber music, instrumental and electro-acoustic music as well as sound art, conceptual art and digital intermedia, and to present them to a broad audience in public concerts, rehearsals, workshops, lectures and a publication on the project. Always, Already There will be conceived and realized together with the artistic director of the International Contemporary Ensemble, George E. Lewis, who is coming to Haus der Kulturen der Welt as guest curator for the project, members of the ensemble and Afro-diasporic musicians from Berlin and Germany. Public rehearsals and concerts at HKW, as well as workshops and discourse events, will offer insights and access opportunities for a broad audience and exemplify the outstanding role that Afro-diasporic new music can play as an intercultural, cross-generational incubator for new themes, stories and identities.

The concerts Always, Already There are made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Further information:
hkw.de

Dates

November 4 – 10, 2024
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin