Marmoucha Orchestra & Maripepa Contreras: Sexi Firmum Iulium

Sound and image merge in an orchestral concert that links the present with the musical tradition of Andalusia.

Maripepa Contreras is one of the few jazz oboists in the world. In the audiovisual performance Sexi Firmum Iulium, she delves into the layered history of her birthplace. The title refers to Sexi, the Phoenician trading city on the southern Spanish coast that became known as Sexi Firmum Iulium under the Romans: the current Almuñécar. Nourished by classical, jazz, and Mediterranean sound worlds, she translates her heritage into contemporary, forward-looking music, raw, precise, and free at the same time.

The visuals are by artist Toni Geitani from Lebanon, which is historically connected to Phoenicia, the same civilization that founded Sexi. Together with the Marmoucha Orchestra, a live experience is created in which everything is intertwined: sound with image, origin with now, Almuñécar with Amsterdam.

Maripepa Contreras is the artistic coordinator, regular arranger, and one of the musicians who were at the cradle of the Marmoucha Orchestra, the Amsterdam ensemble that organically combines jazz, global, and composed music.