Between free jazz and feminism, Valmaggia questions the status quo
A woman behind a drum kit in fascist Italy, 100 years ago? That seems unimaginable. Yet that very thought is the starting point for Agnese Valmaggia’s I Never Lie. What if you had been born in a different time, who could you have been? And who can you still become, in a future we can barely picture? Driven by this curiosity, Valmaggia uses the drum kit as a lens to explore the invisible rules that shape us. Over the past century, mindsets and stereotypes have been challenged, but how much change is still ahead? How many things that seem normal today will look completely wrong in 100 years?
I Never Lie is a solo performance in which music, image and storytelling come together to question what we take for granted in our daily lives. A drum kit forms the beating heart of the show, surrounded by triggers, electronics, samples and immersive visuals, all controlled live. The performance invites you as an audience member to imagine who we could become, beyond the limits of expectation. A journey that challenges you to face the truths we so often overlook.
Biography
Agnese Valmaggia is an Italian drummer, composer and multidisciplinary artist based in Lörrach, Germany. Her work explores identity, perception and the unspoken rules of everyday life, building entire worlds with a drum kit, a laptop and her own way of seeing.
With a background in jazz and a curiosity for storytelling, she uses rhythm and technology to question how we behave, who we are, and who we might become. During her master’s in jazz composition at Codarts (2022–2024), she conducted artistic research into the use of samples in the compositional process, research that became the foundation for her current solo project, I Never Lie, which premiered in Rotterdam in 2025.
Alongside her solo work, Agnese performs as a drummer with various bands in the Netherlands and beyond, including the nine-piece collective parra.dice. In 2021 she released But Still, the debut album of her own group, Valmaggia Project.
SHIFT, an initiative of Explore the North and Stadsschouwburg De Harmonie
This performance is part of SHIFT! Presented performing arts: raw, honest, current and disruptive. You come to SHIFT because you want to know what’s going on, in your head, in the world, in others, in yourself, in the big picture and in the small details. For curious thinkers and critical dreamers. Throughout the year you’ll find performances here at changing locations that you simply have to see, off the beaten track of theatre. From spoken word to postmodern dance. From theatrical pamphlet to poetic requiem. These are performances by both emerging and more established artists that touch on the present and the future.