Matana Roberts

“Panoramic sound-quilting” is the term Matana Roberts uses to describe her combination of instrumental music, singing, spoken word and visual imagery. Born in Chicago in 1978, she studied classical clarinet before switching to the alto saxophone. In 2002 she moved to New York – where, in recent years, she has lived on a houseboat in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay. In 2011 she released the first volume – or “chapter” - in a projected series of 12 albums under the title “Coin Coin”, in which she explores questions of memory, identity and ancestry. Three chapters have so far been issued. In 2015 she was invited to play at the opening of the new Whitney Museum in New York, and in 2016 she received a Doris Duke Artist Award. In tonight’s performance in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, she responds to an exhibition celebrating the work of the late German choreographer Pina Bausch.
www.matanaroberts.com