Description
We are celebrating the festival’s 10th edition with a line-up of festival artists and musicians from the entire decade.
The main idea of the festival is to gather musicians and other artists to meet in an open and listening community. This concert embodies the festival’s “spirit” by meeting very different musicians and music traditions in a celebration of community in diversity.
Producer Ivan Mazuze himself is a musician with roots from Mozambique and has been a participant in the festival on several occasions over the years. He is now employed as a producer at Interkultur in Drammen municipality and is one of the festival’s closest partners. Together with the festival’s board, he has set up a program where the following friends of the festival will attend (more may come during the summer):
Rohini Sahajpal
Rohini comes from a musical family rooted in Indian classical music. The instrument she plays is the string instrument Sitar. Rohini graduated as a doctor in 2007 and has been teaching Indian classical music since she was little, first by her father, Shri Lal who is a multi-instrumentalist, and in recent years as a student of one of India’s largest, now-living musicians, the flutist Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia. Rohini has played on many major scenes in Norway and India, including Molde Jazz Festival, Harstad Festival, Det Norske theater, and on several occasions toured with the National Concerts. She has played with many prominent Norwegian musicians, including Jon Balke and Helge Nordbakken, and has received several cultural grants and music awards.
Shri Lal
Born into a musical family in Nurmahal, Punjab, India, Shri Lal first learned music from his father. Later, he received teaching and guidance from, among other things, renowned Indian violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam. Shri Lal came to Norway as a student in 1974 and chose to settle down and start a family here. He is currently working as a music teacher at Oslo Music and Culture School. He is a multi-instrumentalist, but has the violin as the main instrument.
Miriam Shirin Kammler
Cellist Mirjam Shirin Kammler has made his mark through concert play locally and nationally. She qualified for the final of NRK’s Young Soloists as early as 2013 and is one of the country’s foremost young musicians. She studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music from the fall of 2014 with Professor Truls Mørk. She plays in several different ensembles and rehearsals this summer as group leader in Jönköping Sinfonietta.
Espen Ejö (Jørgensen)
The Renaissance man Espen Jørgensen has reinvented himself again, and comes to Drammen Sacred under his new artist name Espen Ejō. He has spent the last few years following the bluegrass flirtation with Jørgen and Jørgensen to establish a whole new way of putting together tones and sounds, using found objects and recordings from nature and the environment as the backdrop for his beautiful acoustic guitar tones. Espen works on a method where presence and chance are important keywords. Or as it is so beautifully called in English; Serendipity. Espen Ejō makes movie music for the movie YOU make – inside yourself. Espen Ejō plays Occasional random music based on Zen Buddhist principles of accepting and using whatever arises.
Matamba
The eccentric, Argentinian-born artist Matamba made an impression worldwide with his alternative sound and style from his first album in 2008 “Estilo Dread”. Growing up in the hood in Bolivia, with several years on the streets as a drug addict, has shaped Matamba into the man he is today. The passion for music started in the church, where he started his first hardcore rock band, K-Rux. In the same breath, he initiated the movement “La Raza” (the breed), which became a cultural movement even beyond the borders of Bolivia. He filled concert halls everywhere, not with fans, but with sisters and brothers who collectively became part of the movement. In 2016 he visited Norway for the very first time, leaving strong footprints among the audience, both in Drammen and in Bergen. In 2017 he was Drammen Sacred Music Festival’s artist in residence. This is a LIVE artist worth experiencing! He was nominated ambassador for the Ricky Martin Foundation in 2008 with the “Browse Protected” campaign for increased awareness of human trafficking, protection of children and teenagers, and has worked with campaigns in the fight against bullying. In Latin America, Matamba is already an award-winning music icon, and in recent years has shared stage with bands such as Julian Marley, DMX, Capleton, Sizzla, Rihanna, The Black Eyed Peas, Marilyn Manson, Prodigy, Los Cafres, Faith No More and of course, with many great Latin and Afro Caribbean artists.
Svein Westad
Svein Westad is first and foremost known as a folk musician with a mouthpiece as the main instrument. On this instrument he mastered most genres in music, from Indian ragas to Norwegian folk dances. He started playing the harp in earnest in the late 1980s, and has since then participated in countless races and concerts, the latest both at home and abroad. Munnharpa has brought him to exotic places, such as Kyrgyzstan, Jakutia, Japan and Indonesia and Nepal. He has been a guest teacher for one year in the harp at the Nepal Music Center in Kathmandul. Svein knows both rhythms and melodies in music from both the Middle East and the East. In this year’s Drammen Sacred he has a group of four musicians in the “Multicultural Sufi Ensemble”: Jan Khelil is from Khobany in Syria. He is educated as a teacher, but since he was young he has learned both music and singing by members of his family. Mohamad Ali is a musician who in his native Syria has music education in composition, directing and management. In addition to being a skilled percussionist, he also plays various keyboard instruments. Sirvan Abdollahi hails from the Kurdish area west of Iran. He has studied both guitar and violin in his home country, and has participated in a number of concerts in Iran and Iraq. He is an excellent vocalist and conducts songs in local Kurdish tradition, but also of Persian origin. Konstantin Georgiev is from Bulgaria, he is educated at the music university in Plovdiv east of the country. He is a virtuoso on his gadoulka, a little fella who is an important part of Bulgarian folk music.
Kilema
Kilema is a well-known and beloved artist for the Drammen Sacred Music Festival, and has participated as an artist three times previously. He is a master at playing the traditional instruments of Marovany, Kabosy and Katsà, and it is through them that he carries with him the magical, rhythmic soul of Madagascar wherever he goes. Kilema is currently living in Encinarejo-Cordoba, Spain, touring and spreading much joy and love with her joyful music.
Tickets 200,- / 100,- under 25 years + ticket tax. Lenke for kjøp av billetter her
