From Tambú tot Maqam: Music Migration and Identity

Music travels with people and is shaped by where they come from and where they are going. Through music, stories are told about home, change and connection.

Together, students from Codarts worked on a week-long project under the theme Rhythm and Routes: an introduction to Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. For this, three guest lecturers were invited: Siegfried Hart, Lidrick Solognier and Roël Calister. Each of them has a personal connection to the islands and shares that through music.

Tambú is one of the most important rhythmic foundations of the islands. The genre exists in different forms and expressions across Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, each with its own character and sound. Tambú is part of a shared rhythmic language that continues to evolve and is passed down from generation to generation.

Over the course of a week, the students immersed themselves in this musical world. Together, they played, learned and made it their own. The performance is the result of this week, in which many different voices, backgrounds and stories come together in one place.

Silk Roads & CaSa
This project brings together two Codarts groups: Maqam and Modal Cultures along the Silk Roads and CaSa (Caribbean and South American). The Silk Roads project is led by Jawa Manla, oud player, singer, composer and lecturer. She was born in Aleppo and raised in Damascus. At a young age, she began playing the oud, inspired by the music her father played at home.

The CaSa project is also led by a Codarts lecturer: Juliana Martina, singer, composer and lecturer. With roots in Curaçao and Colombia, and having moved to the Netherlands at a young age, migration has always been part of her story.