At the Beginning

In his music and concerts, Marc Sinan is known for innovatively tying contemporary compositions with traditional sound material and music-ethnological field research.
The new musical performance “Am Anfang” (At the Beginning) takes the audience on a narrative expedition to the religious and scientific creation myths of western Africa and Europe. It brings traditional and religious music from Mali in contact with contemporary European music, singing, performance and video art.
The project is being produced by the Marc Sinan Company in Germany and the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart in cooperation with the newly established Malian avant-garde music ensemble at the BlonBa theatre in Bamako, headed by Habib Sangaré and the choreographer and performer Kettly Noël. Kettly Noël, who will also serve as co-director, is one of the most highly acclaimed artists on the African continent today. One of the unique artistic challenges of this project will be to learn from the mastery of the other musicians and jointly experiment with new performance and vocal techniques. The world premiere was staged as part of the festival DIE IRRITIERTE STADT in Stuttgart in 2020. In 2021, other performances will take place in Bamako, Mali (open-air), and in Berlin. The Berlin live staging will be accompanied by a digital installation shown in the new Humboldt Forum for the duration of two weeks.

Artistic director: Marc Sinan
Musical director/conductor: Marc Sinan / Andrea Molino
Company/ensemble/orchestra: Marc Sinan & Company, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Complexe Culturel BlonBa (ML) and others
Choreography: Kettly Noël (ML)
Research associate: Salia Malé
Text & dramaturgy: Maike Wetzel

International premiere: Centre Culture BlonBa, Bamako, Mali: 4 March 2021