Monica has been singing since she was a little girl. “I come from a large Moluccan family and I was always allowed to sing along with my older brothers. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young polyphonically, that was beautiful.” She developed into a professional singer and went her own way in the Dutch jazz and world music scene with her band Boi Akih.
In 2023 she was awarded the Boy Edgar Prize. “The winner of the Boy Edgar Prize 2023 is an inspired connector and storyteller. The jury sees her as an improviser par excellence and a singer who uses her powerful voice as an instrument and shows an unprecedentedly broad palette of timbres,” it said. in the jury report. This can also be heard in the performance of the Messiah.
Traveling with the Messiah
Iris Heidebrink is a programmer at the Buiksloterkerk and explains very clearly and concisely what Boi Akih does. “What they do with the Messiah is they take a journey with their music and the listener gets to go along with it.”
Handel’s Messiah by Boi Akih can be seen and listened to on Saturday, December 14 in the Oude Kerk in Heemstede, on Sunday, December 15 in the Buiksloterkerk in Amsterdam and on Thursday, December 19 in the Roode Bioscoop in Amsterdam.