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Fodé Lassana Diabaté is a virtuoso balafon (22-key xylophone) player from Mali. Thanks to Support for Culture and Cape Breton University (CBU), Lassana will be visiting Cape Breton Island in April for a series of public performances, school visits, and studio recording sessions.
The public is invited to join Lassana on April 2, at Halifax North Library on April 3, at Cape Breton University’s Centre for Sound Communities Studio, on April 8, at Centre Communautaire Étoile de l’Acadie, on April 9, at Menelik Hall in Whitney Pier, and on April 13, at the McConnell Public Library in Sydney’s waterfront district. Additional programming will take place in Halifax and Cheticamp.
These interactive events are part of CBU’s Centre for Sound Communities community-based arts research project called “Songs and Stories in Celebration of the International Decade for People of African Descent.” The public is invited to enjoy the music and stories of Lassana’s traditional culture. Audience members will also be asked to share their own experiences surrounding songs and stories of their own communities and cultures. All ages are encouraged to attend.
Lassana began playing balafon at the age of five with his father, a master balafon player. He has collaborated with international artists across a number of genres including jazz and Latin music, and was a member of the Grammy-nominated Mali-Cuba collaboration, Afrocubism.
Lassana is also the leader of the group Trio Da Kali, a trio of Malian griot musicians who are revising forgotten repertoires and styles of the revered Mande griot tradition. Few can match Lassana’s lyricism and virtuosity, or the resonant sound of the rosewood keys of his balafons, which he crafts with his own hands.
“Songs and Stories” with Lassana Diabaté will take place on April 2, at CBU at 2 p.m., on April 3 at Halifax North Memorial at 7 p.m, April 9, at Melenik Hall at 6:00 p.m., and on April 13, at the McConnell Library at 3:00 p.m. On April 8 at Centre Communautaire Étoile de l’Acadie, the public is invited to bring a dish to a community potluck celebration at 5pm. For more information please visit soundcommunities.org.
To schedule an interview please contact Dr. Marcia Ostashewski, Director, Centre for Sound Communities at (780) 264-7624 or marcia_ostashewski@cbu.ca.
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/
