Labor Neunzehn is pleased to invite you to the 47th concert of Cluster Series, marking the 10th edition of the series, with Sabrina Ma.
For Cluster Series 2026, Berlin-based percussionist Sabrina Ma presents a programme exploring the timbral and expressive possibilities of percussion. Moving between contemporary repertoire, transcription and newly commissioned work, the programme brings together pieces by Alessandro Massobrio, Joseph Schwantner and Toshi Ichiyanagi, tracing different approaches to resonance, texture and the physicality of sound.
The concert will be accompanied by A Person of the Forest, a film by Miranda Pennell, revisiting colonial history and stories of resistance in Sumatra.
Friday, October 30th, 2026
20:00 DOORS 20:30 EVENT STARTS
Location: KM28 (www.km28.de)
Karl-Marx Straße, 28
12043, Berlin, Neukölln
INM-FIELD NOTES: www.field-notes.berlin
A. Film Screening Programme
A PERSON OF THE FOREST
Miranda Pennell
2026 / HD / color-b&w / sound / 34′ 03
Film courtesy of Light Cone (Paris)
Curated by Valentina Besegher Scotti
SYNOPSIS
In a dispatch from the back-room of a museum, the ghost of a long-dead orangutan returns to narrate early 20th century propaganda films documenting Sumatra’s plantations. She recounts acts of resistance of those, human and non-human, who came before and after her. A Person of the Forest is a ghost story of the colonial past summoned to disturb the present. ‘We, like all people, want to live and we want to be free’.
BIO
Miranda Pennell is a London-based filmmaker whose work often recycles images from British colonial archives to reflect on contemporary situations.
Her award winning films have screened at New York Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, FID Marseille, Viennale, Rotterdam International Film Festival, London International Film Festival among others. Some of her work is available for streaming on LUXPLAYER and DAFilms.com. Recent group exhibitions include Evil Eye: The Parralel Histories of Optics and Ballistics (2023) Tabakalera Centre for Contemporary Culture, San Sebastian.
She is currently developing new film for the Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam.
B. Concert
Programme:
Alessandro Massobrio (*1974) »Vector-span Studies for 5 Cymbals« (2026)
Joseph Schwantner (*1943) »Velocities« (1990)
Toshi Ichiyanagi (1933–2022) »The Source for marimba« (1989)
Sabrina Ma | Percussion and Electronics
Sabrina Ma is a Hong Kong–born percussionist based in Berlin, active in contemporary music. She studied at the University of Michigan and the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, and won the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb in 2013.
She performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, appearing at festivals such as the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Lucerne Festival Academy, Warsaw Autumn, and Klangspuren Schwaz. Her work focuses on the timbral possibilities of percussion, combining contemporary repertoire, transcriptions, and newly commissioned works.
sabrinama.com
Cluster is a new-music series devoted to the investigation of sound and notation, which provides musicians and composers with an exchange area in Berlin, at the crossroad of compositional and performance practices.
img. 1 © Matthias Henke 2.3 © Miranda Pennell