Auf einen Mokka mit Sue: Wilbert Pepper

Wilbert Pepper makes the bass speak—and in many languages. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, he discovered the double bass at the age of five.
He received his musical training in the world-famous social music project El Sistema, which gives children and young people from all walks of life access to classical music. At the age of eleven, Wilbert became a scholarship holder of the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra, one of the most renowned youth symphony orchestras in the world. For nine years, he toured Europe and Asia with the orchestra, playing under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, and Gustavo Dudamel – and performing on stages such as La Scala in Milan, the Royal Festival Hall in London, and the Munich Philharmonic.
Pepper is a musician who crosses boundaries – not only geographically, but also stylistically. In addition to his classical training, he developed an interest in other genres of music at an early age and learned to play the double bass across genres. Today, he lives in Munich as a freelance musician and can be heard both as a soloist and with various ensembles and orchestras. His repertoire ranges from classical music to jazz, hip-hop, and pop to world music and fusion.

In “Auf einen Mokka mit Sue” (A Mocha with Sue), Wilbert talks about his musical journey between continents and soundscapes—and why music is a place of encounter, resistance, and belonging for him.

Suzan “Sue” Çakar’s talk format at Habibi Kiosk sees itself as part of a post-migrant cultural landscape: artistic, low-threshold, and permeable. “Auf einen Mokka mit Sue” combines culture with attitude – as a conversation, as a performative moment, and as an invitation to think further together. We talk about life – politically, personally, and poetically, loudly or quietly. The floor is given to voices that are otherwise often overlooked: especially women, marginalized people, and people with a migration background. It’s about identity, resistance, belonging, body, language, and origin – about the private as a political issue and art and culture as a place of empowerment

Suzan Çakar

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Steffen Boeckh

Wilbert Pepper

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Jonathan Gorden

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Julian Baumann

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