asambura

“A perfect fusion of musical cultures. The asambura ensemble brings out fine nuances, presenting itself as a whole in which every voice has its place. Artistic worlds enter into dialogue and merge with one another.“
Leonie Bünsch. Klassik begeistert


The asambura ensemble is an outstanding role model and a vibrant mediator of contemporary musical culture.“

Friederike Ankele. Leitung Kulturbüro Hannover


“A moving and courageous album that expands horizons and opens ears! Schubert’s cosmos not only deeply internalized but also reimagined.“

Susanne Schmerda. Bayerischer Rundfunk

„Asambura” – an anagram of the Tanzanian „Usambara” mountains, with their view into the infinite vastness – symbolizes looking beyond one’s own horizon.

The asambura ensemble consists of musicians from diverse backgrounds and cultural affiliations. Asambura interprets, composes, and contextualizes classical music with a wide range of cultural and interreligious perspectives. We are always searching for ways to make familiar sounds innovatively audible and to build bridges that seem unimaginable. In conscious friction with the culturally diverse social, societal, and political present, we develop a modern language of sound.
At the same time, Asambura is also a collective that carries forward the idea of constructive dialogues between different cultures and religions in a mediating and cooperative manner.

The Asambura Ensemble has performed at venues such as WDR Köln, the international chor.com and at Classical:NEXT, a festival focused on new concert formats in the field of classical music.
asambura ist the winner of the prestigious “Freedom & Responsibility” Initiative Prize from the Hanns-Lilje Foundation for the “creative power of art and cultur” (2021) and received the Music Mediation Award from the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung and Musikland Niedersachsen (2021). The album FREMD BIN ICH EINGEZOGEN was named Album of the Month by Bayerischen Rundfunk in December 2020 and was nominated for the OPUS KLASSIK 2021 in three categories (Ensemble of the Year, Composer of the Year and Classical without Borders).
The asambura ensemble ist a member of FREO e.V., and also receives basic funding from the State Capital of Hannover / UNESCO City of Music.

Chronicle
„No future without reflecting on the past“ – this principle has shaped the asambura ensemble from the very beginning.

In 2015, the award-winning Maximilian Guth composed a culturally diverse oratorio inspired by East African music traditions, which opens Handel’s Messiah to a reflection on colonial history – the founding format of the asambura ensemble.

The roots of the Asambura Ensemble trace back to diverse cultural-musical encounter projects between five singers from the northern Usambara Mountains (Tanzania) and Western-trained musicians from Hannover. Traditional songs arranged for choir by Yambazi Kaoneka from Tanzania blended with improvisational elements in the arrangements developed by Maximilian Guth in dialogue with Lennart Smidt. This musical experience went far beyond simply playing music together, fostering an understanding of the peculiarities, similarities, and differences between cultures.

Further encounter journeys of the ensemble not only expanded the view of the richness of East African music and cultural traditions but also raised awareness of the scars left by colonialism and Christian missionary work in former German East Africa, which persist to this day. This beginning opened up and defined the broad, culturally diverse, and interreligious perspective that continues to shape the ensemble today. Without Usambara, there would be no Asambura. Hence, the name.

This reflection on the past remains a central concern of the ensemble. Since its formal founding in 2015/2016, the asambura ensemble has carried forward the values of cultural diversity and interreligious dialogue in all its artistic and mediating projects.

In the years that followed, Ehsan Ebrahimi became a key partner, whose expertise in Persian classical music and contemporary music played an important role in the conceptualization of Fremd bin ich eingezogen. The interreligious MISSA MELASUREJ was finally composed through a collaborative compositional process.

Today, the asambura ensemble serves as a platform for diverse cultural dialogues and bridges, artistic excellence, and reflection on societal issues – always with a focus on inspiring cooperation and collective development.

The vibrant and distinctive asambura sound palette ranges from the Persian santur, Arabic oud, West African kora and udu drum to resonating marimba swirls, prepared piano-gamelan and bell sounds, lute arco, bass flute recitations, “trombone muezzin,” and “flute percussion.”

Asambura reinterprets the metaphorical confusion of voices in the religious parable of the “Tower of Babel,” shifting it into a perspective that values religious and cultural diversity.

For more background on our concept as an intercultural music ensemble within the spectrum of contemporary music, please visit here.


KALEIDOSCOPIA
Fremd bin ich eingezogen
MISSA MELASUREJ
MessiaSASAmbura
diasporAsa
[un]Questioned Answer
POLYPontes
LUX PERPETUA
Babel inMotion
Fremd ohne worte
aeternea
asambura ensemble 2016 | photo credit © Ghazaleh Ghazanfari

all asambura concerts  HERE

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“a vision for peace and coexistence of different culturance”
evangelischer Pressedienst

 


“A conscious affirmation of style and cultural pluralism. It is not about eliminating differences or creating a flattening of diversity, but about tolerance, about embracing the initially ‘foreign’ – without fear and prejudice.“
Neue Westfälische Zeitung