Steve Mekoudja: »Freedom«

Taking inspiration from Richard Wagner’s opera »The Flying Dutchman«, Steve Mekoudja’s commissioned work focuses on the motifs of love and freedom. The Cameroon-born director, writer, singer and computer engineer uses these two multifaceted themes to combine music, theatre, dance and poetry. Mekoudja interacts on stage with an ensemble of dancers, a choir and a large musical ensemble.
With his music, Steve Mekoudja generally explores socio-political issues, often in the context of Black masculinity. On his three releases to date – »Rituals« (2018), »Origins« (2022) and »Introspections« (2023) – he elegantly expresses the heavy themes with a mixture of contemporary African music and sensitive poetry.

This performance at Pop-Kultur is a further development of the first version of the piece, which premiered last year at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (in cooperation with Musicboard Berlin).

Credits: Steve Mekoudja (artist, vocals, dance), Etoundi Gerard Joseph (piano), Or Rozenfeld (double bass & bass), Venant Ntiomo (percussion), Chukwunomnso »Diazno« Diali (guitar), Yannick Mäntele (trumpet), Youka Snell (violin), Henry Brown (violin), Philine Höhnisch (viola), Nela Jamborowicz (cello), Henri Ngaha (choir), Yvan Noussidji (choir), Pamela Limacher (choir), Melissa Telong (choir), Ollà (choir), Nane Kahle (choir), Franck Mekoudja (assistant), Noor-cella Bena (assistant).