Meet the guestcurators of Music Meeting 2024

Music Meeting Festival cuts across styles, genres and cultures. The adventurous music festival has been offering a stage to the best artists worldwide for over 35 years: musicians who have rarely or never been seen in the Netherlands, with new projects or in special compositions. The festival also makes room for talent development by offering a place to guest curators when putting together the festival program.

This year, artistic director Martyna van Nieuwland and programmer Julia Koenen are working together with guest curators Jermaine Kanbier and Tim Sprangers. This collaboration offers an enriching and more diverse view on the current music scene. Jermaine Kanbier is a junior programmer at Bimhuis and can often be found on stage as a drummer in various projects. Tim Sprangers is a programmer and founder of Space is the Place, which has programmed over 1000 adventurous and multidisciplinary concerts with a focus on jazz and improv.

“I like to take the visitors of Music Meeting into the world of neo-soul, hip-hop, electronics and soulful grooves and sounds,” says Jermaine Kanbier. “With Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange (ZFEX) I am bringing an incredibly swinging electronic live band to Nijmegen. I am a big fan of live music and can often be found in the nightlife. ZFEX brings both worlds together, in a set with synths that are mixed with sharp grooves from the broken beat - as you will hear for yourself on Sunday, May 19.” Kanbier also programmed multi-instrumentalist Bnnyhunna on Saturday, May 18. “I have been following his extraordinary development as a musician and artist for quite some time. With his seductive piano playing, gospel-oriented harmonies and charming stage presence, he knows how to touch me - and many others - deeply. I'm already looking forward to a sick weekend of Music Meeting!”

Tim Sprangers says he is happy that Music Meeting and Space is the Place have found each other. “In this way we strengthen each other in our mission: creating wonder, fun and encounters. Music Meeting stands for adventure, musicians with an open mind and an eclectic variety of genres - that is exactly what Space is the Place aims for and realizes by organizing exciting concerts in which open-minded artists from diverse backgrounds share the stage. Although it feels logical to collaborate with a like-minded organization, it especially feels like a great honor!”

One of the bands that Sprangers programmed is Superinca & the Galactic Green, on Saturday 18 May. “A hyper-explosive band from the underground of Amsterdam jazz and improv. Expect an extremely danceable act in a mix of cumbia rhythms, improvisation and rock, with the very charismatic front woman Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti.” He also booked SOFAYA on Sunday 19 May, a group around the talented South African trumpeter James McClure, who lives in Amsterdam. “He gathered a group of fellow countrymen to revive the wonderful South African music of the 1970s with a fresh generation of musicians. They also play their own songs, and the result is a catchy, very swinging and full band sound, with which they completely turned the Amsterdam Bimhuis upside down.”