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The Centre for Sound Communities warmly invites you to attend the celebration for the release of Bala, the first balafón-only album by Lassana Diabaté. Bala presents a collection of works for solo balafón. Issued by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings as part of the Sound Communities Series, the album was recorded at Cape Breton University and produced by Dr. Marcia Ostashewski. The recording brings together Mande musical traditions with original compositions inspired by Unama’kik (Cape Breton Island).
Lassana Diabaté will be joining us from Mali for the online portion of the event, which will feature musical performances by Lassana along with colleagues and collaborators who contributed to the project. The performances will be followed by a discussion about Lassana’s music and the making of the album. Each watch party location will feature local music performances, refreshments and snacks. All of them are free to attend.
Date: March 27th, 2026
Time: 7:00 PM (Atlantic Time / Nova Scotia)
Locations:
Halifax: 2439 Gottingen Street, Halifax.
Chéticamp: Le Canton culturel au 15118
Cabot Trail, Chéticamp
Sydney: Centre for Sound Communities (access via the Sullivan Field House)
Online via Zoom: https://us06web.
The Smithsonian Folkways Sound Communities Series is a partnership between the Centre for Sound Communities and the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. The series highlights musical projects by artists and communities whose voices have often been underrepresented, with a particular focus on creators living on the lands commonly referred to as Canada, within the broader Indigenous territories of Turtle Island.
The album is available now and can be purchased here.
Special Events:
COVERED IN SALTWIRE MARCH 11, 2024! "Tea and conversation with elders at Cape Breton University":
ARCHIVE OF NEWSFLASH ANNOUNCEMENTS:
TransAtlantic Pilgrimage - Celebrating African Heritage 2024
Watch this space for more details to come! This exciting festival includes film showcases plus dance & music workshops, to be held in multiple locations around Unama'ki: Sydney, Chéticamp, Glace Bay, Membertou Heritage Park, on campus and off — and every event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, so come and join in! We are honoured to feature dub poet/performer/historian Dr. Afua Cooper and Afropop/jazz/rhumba musician Mark Lenini Parselelo in this colourful celebration. For more information, or to register for the Teacher Professional Development Workshops, please e-mail sound_communities@cbu.ca or call 902-563-1696.
More details to be found under Events.
March 5th, 2023 | Halifax, NS | Julian Kytasty
1) ICTM DIALOGUES Digital Publication ‘DIALOGUES: Towards Decolonizing Music and Dance Studies’ https://ictmdialogues.org/
2) International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) http://ictmusic.org
3) The Centre for Sound Communities (CSC) https://soundcommunities.org
4) Canadian Society for Traditional Music (CSTM) https://cstm-sctm.ca
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Bandura Master, Kobzar & Composer of Ukrainian Descent:
JULIAN KYTASTY IN CONCERT ~ two dates!
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ICTM PRIZE-WINNERS! Congratulations to our esteemed research collaborators & co-authors* at Membertou First Nation on being awarded the 2021 ICTM Article Prize ~ announced last Saturday at the General Assembly of the International Council for Traditional Music.
The first session of this course took place Thursday, July 22 ~ inspiring and uplifting. If you’d like to join in the second / final session taking place next Thursday, July 29 at 6:30 p.m. Atlantic Time, register here. We hope you’ll join us!
The Centre for Sound Communities congratulates Dr. Sheila Christie on her recent appointment as Chair of the Department of Literature, Folklore and The Arts, and we also thank her for her many contributions to the CSC as she leaves the post of Associate Director. Dr. Christie has exerted truly magnanimous effort in support of faculty and student researchers. She operates on the basis of scholarship and a teaching practice based on care; her thoughtful, dedicated service to the CSC, CBU and wider communities is greatly appreciated by many, as is her commitment and drive, and her impressive ability to get things done. We wish her well in her next chapter!
Join the Summer Celebration! Zoom link is here!
Welcome, Dr. Shauna MacDonald, and thank you, Dr. Sheila Christie! Watch this space for word on a special virtual event coming July 15 to which all are invited!
Registration now open for the Summer Institute 2021 Cantoring Course!
Both sessions of this course take place at 6:30 p.m. Atlantic time.
Session 1 - July 22: Register here
Session 2 - July 29: Register here
Check out the CSC YouTube Channel here to watch a recording of the panel from our June 10 event: Disrupting the Legacies of Colonialism and White Supremacy in Music Schools ~ with thanks to all the participants and registrants in this stellar workshop, as well as to Dr. Dylan Robinson and Dr. Jeremy Strachan for organizing this inaugural DIALOGUES event. [In the coming weeks, we will re-post the video with transcribed text in the hopes of making this ~ and future DIALOGUES events ~ as accessible as possible. Be sure to visit our FB page for news of upcoming events!]
*Coming this Fall 2021!*
Stay tuned for a series of Anti-Racist Pedagogies workshops happening this fall, which will feature a stellar lineup of international scholars and practitioners! For details and registration links, keep checking in on the CSC Facebook page for updates.
New DIALOGUES project workshop to be presented June 10, 2021! Find out more here!
On Friday, May 14, 2021, the Canadian Studies Center, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle presented ‘Singing Sunjata’s Story in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia: A Mali-Canada Musical Collaboration’. The event featured CSC Director Dr. Marcia Ostashewski and research colleague, culture-bearer and internationally renowned musician Lassana Diabaté in conversation and concert. A link to the event video will be released later in May, but for further information about the project, please refer to the Projects menu selection on this website, or find out more on the Bala website: https://balafondiabate.ca/
