North Sea Jazz Composition Project: Kika Sprangers
modern creative - vocal jazz
Kika Sprangers (saxophone); Alistair Payne (trumpet); Reinier Baas (guitar); Tijs Klaassen (bass); Jonas Burgwinkel (drums); Bethany Shepherd, Bobbie Blommesteijn, Mónica Monteiro, Åsa Olsson, Eline Welle, Frankse van der Wiel, Albert van Ommen, Emilio Aguilar, William Knight, Gilad Nezer, Jasper Schweppe, Jouke Wijmenga (vocals).
Sat 12 July 2025 20:30 - 21:30 Madeira
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Ⓒ Anna Perger
The music of Kika Sprangers (1994) is a refined blend of jazz and classical influences. The saxophonist and composer combines the lyrical quality of her instrument with a fascination for the human voice, which plays an important role in her work. Distinctive riffs, melodic lines, rhythmic variation and strong tension arcs characterize her compositions. Sprangers graduated cum laude from the Utrechts Conservatorium in 2016. Since then, she has established herself as a firm presence on the Dutch music scene.
Kika Sprangers has created an ambitious composition for the North Sea Jazz Composition Project with the title The Way Wild Rivers Flow as a collaboration with Nederlands Kamerkoor. In it, she combines a mixed choir with a jazz rhythm section, supplemented by saxophone and trumpet. She builds on her previous experience with choral compositions and puts the emotional power of the voice at its heart. Sprangers strives to balance artistic freedom with structure, writing music for specific musicians and drawing inspiration from greats like Avishai Cohen and Maria Schneider. The result is a cohesive whole that offers room for both improvisation and personal expression. The performance of Sprangers’ composition will not only feature the twelve vocalists of Nederlands Kamerkoor, but also an ensemble with Reinier Baas (guitar), Tijs Klaassen (double bass), and Jonas Burgwinkel (drums).
