MAQUAM

by Michele Di Stefano and Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch
with Biagio Caravano, Francesco Saverio Cavaliere, Andrea Dionisi, Sebastiano Geronimo, Laura Scarpini, Francesca Ugolini
music Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch
voice, trumpet and santur Amir ElSaffar
choreography Michele Di Stefano
light design Giulia Broggi
management Carlotta Garlanda
distribution Jean François Mathieu
production mk/KLm 21-22
coproducted in the framework of RING by Festival Aperto – Fondazione I Teatri Reggio Emilia, Bolzano Danza – Fondazione Haydn, FOG Triennale Milano Performing Arts, Torinodanza Festival / Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, Triennale di Milano
associate partner Lavanderia a Vapore / Fondazione Piemonte dal Vivo
in collaboration with Teatro di Roma – Teatro Nazionale
with the support of MiC – Ministero della Cultura 

mk was established in 2000. The group has developed over the years an inquiry into the ambiguity of bodily states and their alterations; it is now considered as  one of the most lively research ensemble of the Italian scene, with performances in many countries, as Indonesia, USA, Japan,  Peru,  Germany, France,  Hungary, Spain, Portugal and so on. The latest productions by mk propose different formats and performative environments in collaborations with other artists: Veduta (2016-17) is an immersive performance dedicated to the city and to the perspective view of the urban landscape. Bermudas (2017-18 Danza&Danza Award as best Italian production and UBU Prize 2019) is a choreographic system, for a variable and  interchangeable number of performers who support the idea of perpetual motion ruled by an organic order. Parete Nord, dedicated to the mountain, is an international project coproduced by Torinodanza 2018. EDEN (special award Danza&Danza) is a 2020 commission by Bolzano Danza/Tanz Bozen with choreographies by Carolyn Carlson, Michele Di Stefano and Rachid Ouramdane. Michele Di Stefano is the guest  curator for the “Outdoor” program of the Bolzano Danza Festival 2018,  the artistic director of AngeloMai Italia Tropici  and BUFFALO at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome.  He is dance consultant for Teatro di Roma (Grandi Pianure program). He created Upper East Side for Aterballetto, Line Rangers for the Korean National Contemporary Dance Company in Seoul (Autumn 2014) and Bayadere-Il regno delle ombre for Nuovo Balletto di Toscana. He has been awarded the Silver Lion for innovation in dance at the IX Biennale Danza 2014 in Venice. Starting 2010 MK is supported by MIBACT Italian Ministry of Culture. 

Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch is a composer and sound artist. His interests in the field of music goes from pure electronics to compositions for theater and dance, from soundtracks for images to interactive installations. The electro-acoustic composition is the heart of the different projects that he conceives and realizes. In his solo performances, in improvisations, in collaborations with other artists and musicians, his interest is always focused on the idea of establishing new connections between the three central elements in his vision of art: sound – gesture – space. In this sense, a large part of his work is devoted to 3D sound, multichannel and holophonic composition.He has received commissions and artistic residencies from various institutions: Centre Pompidou, Ircam, Groupe de Recherche Musical (GRM), Venice Biennale, Gothenburg Opera, Ballet National de Marseille, RhurTriennale, Royaumont Foundation, Aterballetto Foundation, and many others. He has performed all over the world: Europe, Japan, Indonesia, United States. Among the various artists with whom he collaborated, very close collaborators are the MK company, for which he composes the music since 2006, and Richard Siegal. He graduated in architecture (Italy) and composition (France) and after living in Spain for a while, he moved to Paris, where he now lives and works. In 2017 he founded the Label Ornithology-productions. He is Artist associated to Ircam-Centre Pompidou for the period 2018-2021. 

Amir ElSaffar – Composer, trumpeter, santur player, and vocalist Amir ElSaffar has been described as “uniquely poised to reconcile jazz and Arabic music,” (the Wire) and “one of the most promising figures in jazz today” (Chicago Tribune). A recipient of the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and a 2018 US Artist Fellow, ElSaffar is an expert trumpeter with a classical background, conversant not only in the language of contemporary jazz, but has created techniques to play microtones and ornaments idiomatic to Arabic music that are not typically heard on the trumpet. Additionally, he is a purveyor of the centuries old, now endangered, Iraqi maqam tradition, which he performs actively as a vocalist and santur player. As a composer, ElSaffar has used the subtle microtones found in Iraqi maqam  music to create an innovative approach to harmony and melody, and has received commissions to compose for large and small jazz ensembles, traditional Middle Eastern ensembles, chamber orchestras, string quartets, and contemporary music ensembles, as well as dance troupes. Described as “an imaginative bandleader, expanding the vocabulary of the trumpet and at the same time the modern jazz ensemble,” (All About Jazz), ElSaffar is an important voice in an age of cross-cultural music making. ElSaffar has received commissions from the MAP Fund, Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), Newport Jazz Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chamber Music America, Jazz Institute of Chicago, and is composer-in-residence at the Royaumont Foundation in France in 2017-2019.