About Us
Ariabica projects the idea of intercultural exchange within different musical genres. It means the melting of baroque Aria with the timbre of Arabic music, glued together by the rhythmical variety of Jazz and Improvisation. The quintet consist of the German-Tunisian oriental jazz group Beyond Borders and Serbian soprano Radoslava Vorgić. While the project was created in summer 2021 and appeared for a few performances in and around the city of Mannheim in Southern Germany, the idea for this collaboration arose during a 2017 participation at the Orient meets Occident workshop within the Festival Junger Künstler Bayreuth, which all Ariabica musicians have been attending as artists in residence since many years.
The group's repertoire consists of timeless baroque classics which are in fact songs of love from the 17th century by famous composers such as Monteverdi, Caccini, Caldara and also one of the few popular female composers of that time, Barbara Strozzi. The way these romantic and humorous songs are embedded in the rhythmical surrounding of a pulsating jazz rhythm section and commented on by the sparkling lyricism of jazz saxophone and the melodic mastery of arabic Maqam surely makes for a unique interpretation of this popular repertoire.
