Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper
Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 8pm
This performance is presented without an intermission.
Global View Series Sponsor
Worah Family Foundation
Ballaké Sissoko: Kora
Derek Gripper: Guitar
Ballaké Sissoko and Derek Gripper first met in Paris in 2022 for a single performance. Though they shared no common spoken language, they created a remarkable concert of entirely improvised music. A month later they reunited onstage in London, and soon after entered the studio to record a full-length album, which has now become the foundation of their ongoing collaboration. Their performances continue to unfold without a word exchanged—only a shared love of their repertoire and the expressive possibilities of plucked strings. Expanding the griot tradition of spontaneous variation, Sissoko and Gripper explore Mande music much as Keith Jarrett approached jazz in his legendary improvised solo concerts: through unpremeditated listening and a willingness to let the music flow freely between improvisation and quotation. Their shared musical language is the deep, expansive world of Manding music (traditional and modern musical heritage of the Manding peoples of West Africa), which they navigate with intuition, curiosity, and profound mutual respect.
Ballaké Sissoko, one of the world’s most respected kora masters, is celebrated for his exquisite touch, profound musical sensitivity, and his ability to expand the expressive possibilities of the 21-string West African harp. Born in Bamako, Mali in 1968 into a distinguished jeli (often rendered in English as griot) family, Sissoko inherited a lineage of renowned musicians, including his father, the notable kora player Djelimady Sissoko. Immersed from childhood in Manding musical traditions, he developed a voice on the kora that is both deeply rooted in his heritage and unmistakably contemporary.
Sissoko first achieved international recognition through his duet album New Ancient Strings with fellow kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté in 1999, a recording that showcased his remarkable command of melodic nuance and improvisational dialogue.
His collaborative spirit also led to the acclaimed trio 3MA, alongside Rajery (valiha player from Madagascar) and Driss El Maloumi (oud player from Morocco)—an ensemble celebrated for weaving together three distinct string traditions into a single, border-crossing sound world.
Among Sissoko’s most influential partnerships is his long-standing collaboration with French cellist Vincent Ségal. Their album Chamber Music (2009) brought wide praise and helped introduce the kora to new audiences through its intimate blend of kora and cello. Chamber Music and associated work have been recognized at the Victoires du Jazz (the French “Grammy” awards) for International Album of the Year. Sissoko’s At Peace (2013) was produced by Ségal and features the cellist on several tracks.
Sissoko’s 2021 album Djourou continued to expand his creative reach, featuring collaborations with a diverse group of international artists such as Salif Keita, Camille, Oxmo Puccino, Sona Jobarteh, Piers Faccini, and others, blending influences from across musical genres while keeping the kora at the center.
Born in Cape Town in 1977, Derek Gripper is a composer, arranger, and virtuoso guitarist celebrated for his groundbreaking technique of translating the West African kora to solo guitar. His work forges an unprecedented meeting point between the written tradition of Western classical music and the oral tradition of the West African griots—the Great African Composers whose works he believes deserve a place alongside the world’s musical masters.
His first album of kora transcriptions, One Night on Earth, drew immediate acclaim. Classical guitar legend John Williams called Gripper’s achievement “absolutely impossible until I heard Derek Gripper do it,” while kora maestro Toumani Diabaté asked for confirmation that it was truly just one person playing a single guitar. Both musicians later invited him to collaborate: Gripper performed with Williams at Shakespeare’s Globe and King’s Place in London, and with Diabaté and his Symmetric Orchestra at the Acoustik Festival in Bamako, Mali. His 2016 Carnegie Hall debut paired him with Mali’s Trio da Kali, and Songlines honored him with its award for Best Album in Africa and the Middle East for Libraries on Fire.
Since establishing the kora–guitar conversation, Gripper has continued to expand the musical landscape with recordings such as A Year of Swimming (2020), Billy Goes to Durban (2021), and Sleep Songs for My Daughter (2022). These works blend original compositions, improvisation, and field recordings, drawing threads between musical worlds as varied as J.S. Bach, Arvo Pärt, Salif Keita, Baaba Maal, and Egberto Gismonti. His Bach interpretations, meanwhile, reveal how African musical ideas can illuminate and restore the natural simplicity of early European music.