An Exploration of Language and Sound

Guest artists

Karima El Fillali – April 19

Karima El Fillali (1987) grew up between Dutch and Moroccan cultures, shaped by music and spirituality. Her mother introduced her to singing and baroque church music, while her father shared Islam and Moroccan recordings, through which she discovered Oum Kalthoum.

Drawn to her heritage, she traveled to Morocco to study Arabic and immerse herself in traditions like gnawa and classical singing. Under a Sufi master, she dedicated herself to tarab, music that evokes deep emotional and spiritual states. Back in the Netherlands, she became known for her interpretations of Oum Kalthoum as well as experimental work blending African, European, and Middle Eastern influences. She has collaborated with Oumou Sangaré and Mahmoud Guinia, and received an Award of Honor from Morocco’s Minister of Culture.

Jorgen Gario | UNOM – May 17

Jörgen Gario, also known as UNOM, is an Antillean poet born on Sint Maarten, writing in Dutch, English, and Papiamentu. His artistic journey began in 2006 with a spoken word workshop at Poetry Circle Nowhere, where he later became a coach mentoring emerging talent.

Blending poetry with music, he incorporates guitar, ukulele, and electronic production into performances rooted in reggae and dancehall. His work explores identity, expression, and freedom, marked by an energetic stage presence and reflective lyrics.

Gario’s poetry has been featured in major Dutch publications, including Hardop – Spoken Word in Nederland. Over nearly two decades, he has performed extensively across the Netherlands and internationally, building a reputation as a dynamic and boundary-pushing spoken word artist.

Tanya Tagaq & Nancy Mike – June 5

Tanya Tagaq (1975) is a Canadian throat singer of Inuit and European descent whose work draws deeply on her cultural heritage. She revitalizes traditional Inuit throat singing by blending it with genres such as jazz, punk, electronic, and classical music.

While studying visual arts in Halifax, she developed her distinctive style. Her international breakthrough came through a collaboration with Björk on the album Medúlla (2004). Her debut album Sinaa (2005) won a Canadian Aboriginal Music Award, and she later collaborated extensively with the Kronos Quartet.

Tagaq has received widespread acclaim for her albums and film work, including the Polaris Music Prize for Animism (2014) and a Juno Award in 2015.

Nancy ᒪᑭᑦᑐᖅ Mike is a multi-disciplinary artist; throat singer, accordion player, visual artist, seamstress, and author originally from ᐸᖖᓂᖅᑑᖅ Pangnirtung, Nunavut. She is also a nurse/researcher; former member of the Iqaluit-based band, ‘The Jerry Cans’. Nancy has performed many of her songs in Inuktitut and is passionate about preserving her way of living in the way it was taught and continue to be taught to her by her family, ancestors, and peers. Nancy is committed to representing Inuit, with a wholistic perspective, in all of her artistic projects.