OMI
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Omí (b. 1996, they/she), also known as Omar Gabriel is musician, multidisciplinary artist and cultural producer. Born from Jamaican-British and Italian parents, they grew up in Brazil and in Italy successively. They trained in classical piano and composition at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan, and successively obtained an MA in Sound Design for Film at NFTS London.

Weaving from their classical piano experience, their work integrates the attention to sound as an organic system, and the interest in sonic complexity, to the critical fabulations of a queer black diasporic body.

Nine-Night II

Nine-Night is a solo performance about love, ancestry, and death. On stage, three sound bodies meet: Omí, also known as Omar Gabriel — musician, multidisciplinary artist, and producer — the piano, and the berimbau.

Drawing from classical piano training, Omí’s work treats sound as an organic system and combines sonic complexity with critical reflections on a queer Black diasporic body.

The title refers to a Caribbean funeral tradition made up of nine nights of mourning and celebration before burial — a shared space where the living and the dead can coexist. The piece unfolds in nine acts, moving through concert, storytelling, poetry, video, dance, and installation. The project also includes a visual work created in collaboration with Melissa Corti Díaz.

For the artist, Nine-Night is a personal and collective ritual in which lived experience and ancestry intertwine with the histories of diasporic and queer bodies. The work also stems from a critical reflection on Western musical education, questioning which parts of identity are considered “acceptable” within dominant traditions and challenging a model built on imposed rules and hierarchies.

The performance runs approximately 50 minutes and premiered at Centrale Fies as part of Live Works 2025, within the Agitu Ideo Gudeta Fellowship, in collaboration with Palazzo Grassi Venezia and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, with support from Tanzfabrik Berlin.

Cover Photo Credits: Alessandro Sala