Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper / Maryna Krut

A really interesting evening of contrasting but complementary music by performers who are all making their UAE debuts.

Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper

Malian virtuoso Ballaké Sissoko has taken over the mantle of greatest living kora master, with an ability to unlock every possible nuance on the kora with subtleties rarely heard on any instrument. Derek Gripper is a classical guitarist from South Africa whose own love of the kora set him transcribing and recording some of the greatest works of the instrument. The two met in 2022 in Paris; they have no common verbal language yet managed to perform a complete show together with completely improvised music. Their performances and recordings since then are all achieved without any verbal communication, just a mutual love of their shared repertoire and the possibilities of the plucked string; the result is not unlike classical chamber music, with the music flowing freely between improvisation and quotation.

Maryna Krut

The war in Ukraine transformed Maryna Krut from being a performer updating a beautiful tradition of music to being a witness testifying to people around the world about the devastating conflict in her homeland. She uses her powerful voice and her command of the bandura, a traditional Ukrainian instrument that looks like a cross between a lute and a zither, to fuse the music of her country with jazz and other influences to bring the story and culture of Ukraine to the world.