Christina Wheeler: From the Quarter to the (W)hole: What Lies at the Center of Infinity in the Oceans of the Universe?
Concert
Composer and musician Christina Wheeler presented the world premiere of “From the Quarter to the (W)hole: What Lies at the Center of Infinity in the Oceans of the Universe?” on 11 May 2025 at Radialsystem. The multimedia sound and video performance is a polyphonic tone-poem that interweaves experiences of forced displacement, the African diaspora, grief and community.
Boats recur throughout Afrodiasporic history as vessels of enslavement, escape and heavenly transport. Inspired by multi-perspective narratives, this composition tells the story of four refugees, the survivors of a missing ghost ship, drifting in a dinghy to unknown lands. Their voices and fates are brought to life by the sounds of the glass armonica, mbira, kora, balafon, a string quintet, percussion and other West African instruments.
The concert evening “From the Quarter to the (W)hole” is a poetic, mysterious tale about refugees, spanning a broad spectrum of acoustic, analogue and digital sounds. Acoustic instruments and electronics, as well as spoken and sung text, interweave in a partly composed, partly improvised score. Where are the fugitives in time and space, and where can they finally be found in the moment when the ghost boat disappears without a trace? At that moment, when all voices sound together, the narrative condenses into an Afrofuturistic vision that goes beyond current representations of flight and migration.
Concept, composition, sound design, music, performance, voice, glass harmonica, kora, balafon, mbira and percussion Christina Wheeler
Percussion, xalam, kanjira, djembe, tama, calabash, African flutes, vocals and electronics Dudù Kouate
Violin Penelope Gkika, Biliana Voutchkova
Viola Dina Maccabee
Cello Judith Hamann
Double Bass Vinicius Cajado
Video Claire Fristot
Christina Wheeler ist Komponistin, Vokalistin, Musikerin und Multimedia-Künstlerin mit dem Fokus auf Elektronik und Technologie. Wheeler verbindet strukturierte und improvisierte elektronische Musik mit Stimme, Sampler, Autoharp, Mbira und Theremini. Ihre Arbeit umfasst Solo-Songzyklen, instrumentale Improvisationen, Multimedia-Performances und Installationen. Wheeler kollaborierte mit Künstler*innen wie Nicole Mitchell, Chris Abrahams sowie den The Bakol, Floating People und BlowOut. Wheeler trat international mit Ryuichi Sakamoto, John Cale, Laraaji, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Matana Roberts und David Byrne auf – darunter in der Late Show mit David Letterman, im Lincoln Center und in der Berliner Philharmonie. Zudem wirkte Wheeler in Opern- und Konzertproduktionen mit und wurde von internationalen Festivals wie u. a. Bang on a Can, MaerzMusik und dem CTM-Festival beauftragt.