Great Artists Series '26: Ballaké Sissoko, kora and Derek Gripper, guitar
Schedule
Sun, 01 Feb, 2026 at 07:00 pm
UTC-06:00Location
560 Trinity Ave, St Louis, MO 63130-4315, United States | Clayton, MO
Advertisement
E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall, 560 Music Center Biographies:
After the success of Djourou, the Malian virtuoso returns for an intimate tête à tête with his kora – intimate yet simple and majestic.
On his last album Djourou, Ballaké Sissoko explored new horizons by inviting musicians as varied as Salif Keita, Arthur Teboul (Feu! Chatterton), Camille, Oxmo Puccino, Vincent Segal and Patrick Messina, Piers Faccini to collaborate with him. The highly praised release was a demonstration of the art of musical conversation, Ballaké style, that plaited new strands into the long cord or ‘djourou’ that links him to other musicians and to the history of the kora. There’s no doubt that Ballaké owes his taste and talent for the musical encounter to his consummate listening skills. But they’re also the fruit of the long conservations he never tires of having with his own instrument.
During these strange and paradoxical ‘solitary dialogues’, he makes his kora speak and reacts to the emotions it arouses in him, letting his imagination and his fingers fly off to landscapes that are both magnificent and unknown. It’s there that his qualities as an improviser can be accurately measured, qualities that he began cultivating long ago in the shadow of the venerable elders of the Instrumental Ensemble of Mali, when he was still a young boy. Taking time off from the Djourou sessions, Ballaké recorded these eight instrumental pieces in the intimate confines of the Chapelle Sainte-Apolline in Belgium. Together they proclaim, without need for further evidence, the heights of mastery and freedom that this discreet giant of global music has scaled in his forty-year-long career.
Though two of the pieces also feature on Djourou, the new album gathers together all eight of them in a musical conversation between a master, made of flesh and spirit, and his ‘double’, made of string and wood. It’s a captivating, intimate and authentic testament, recorded in one afternoon, in which Ballaké takes us on a journey, a meandering trip full of majesty that borders on the sacred and touches serene meditative uplands as well as plains criss-crossed by Manding warriors straight out of the epics of a country of whom they are the pride. Ballaké is that country’s best ambassador. He was recently invited by the famous COLORS studio in Berlin to play ‘Nan Sira Madi’, the song that opens the new album. As for the title ‘A Touma’, take it to mean ‘this is the moment’: the moment for Ballaké to share the fruits of his maturity, and for us to discover and be blown away.
The CD and vinyl editions of ‘A Touma’ will be available exclusively to Nø Førmat! subscribers.
Derek Gripper is one of South Africa’s leading guitarists whose love of the kora set him transcribing and recording some of its greatest works, changing the face of classical guitar...
When Gripper released One Night on Earth, his first album of kora translations, classical guitar legend John Williams said he thought it was “absolutely impossible until I heard Derek Gripper do it,” while kora maestro Toumani Diabaté asked for confirmation that it was indeed just one person playing. Both invited Derek to collaborate with them: Derek performed with Williams in London’s Shakespeare’s Globe and King’s Place, and with Diabaté and his Symmetric Orchestra at the Acoustik Festival Bamako, Mali. His 2016 Carnegie Hall debut paired him with Mali’s Trio da Kali, and the UK’s Songlines honoured him with best album in Africa and the Middle East for his 2016 album Libraries on Fire.
Since these two recordings put kora/guitar translations on the map, his recent recordings A Year of Swimming (2020), Billy Goes to Durban, (2021) and Sleep Songs for My Daughter (2022), have incorporated elements of his kora explorations in original compositions and improvisations, captured on tape in the field and in studio, while his Bach recordings have shown that African music has a lot to teach us about recapturing the natural simplicity of early European music.
Touring globally from his home in Cape Town, Gripper is collaborating with Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko on a new duo project, and recording for the record label Platoon.
**All programs subject to change
In collaboration with St. Louis Classical Guitar
(Washington University Box Office - 314-935-6543)
*purchases only refundable due to presenter cancellation
Current subscription holders will receive their renewal forms starting March 23rd with a mailing to follow shortly after. Renew for priority seating requests by April 21st (renewal form in hand). Subscriptions will be available to new subscribers on May 9th. Visit this site on May 9th to subscribe or join our mailing list to receive an order form in the mail and a link via e-mail.
Subscriptions
$150 for 6 concerts (On Sale May 9th)
Single Tickets (On Sale 9/8)
$35-40 General Admission
$32-37 WashU Faculty/Staff
$15 Students/Youth
**All programs subject to change
Advertisement
Where is it happening?
560 Trinity Ave, St Louis, MO 63130-4315, United States, 560 Trinity Ave, St Louis, MO 63130-4315, United States, ClaytonEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
