MIKA Symphonique

Music possesses an extraordinary quality: it speaks to everyone, brings together different audiences, and transforms each performance into a shared experience. It is from this vision that the concert marking MIKA’s first appearance in Spoleto at the Festival dei Due Mondi takes shape — an unmissable event that weaves together contemporary songwriting and symphonic tradition in a dialogue of striking originality.

Joined by the musicians of the Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna under the baton of Canadian composer and conductor Simon Leclerc, and by the Coro del Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto, the singer-songwriter takes to the stage in Piazza Duomo with a performance of remarkable breadth, illuminating both the vibrant energy and the intimate lyricism of his repertoire.

Before Life in Cartoon Motion, The Origin of Love, and My Name Is Michael Holbrook, there were Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, and Benjamin Britten. As a child, having sought refuge in classical music, MIKA studied voice and piano, eventually joining the chorus of the Royal Opera House in Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss, a formative debut that marked the discovery of his own “voice.” Accepted into the Royal College of Music, he complemented his academic training during adolescence with explorations into rock and electronic music, drawing inspiration from artists as varied as Nina Simone, Serge Gainsbourg, Fairuz and Oum Kalthoum.

If it is true that MIKA writes songs only he can truly inhabit, it is equally true that Simon Leclerc’s arrangements lend pieces such as Love Today, Happy Ending, and Grace Kelly a renewed and resplendent symphonic dimension. This is not merely reinterpretation, but a celebration of music’s universal power to speak across genres and generations alike.

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