4.  Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal

Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Time: 7pm
Venue: The Graduate Center, Elebash Hall (365 Fifth Avenue, bet. 34th and 35th Streets, New York, NY
Ticket: $25
Genre: West Africa meets West Europe chamber music

The new series Live @ 365 present Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal’s Chamber Music, a stunning collaboration and a hit of last year’s globalFEST. One of the top kora (21-stringed lute-harp) players of the new generation, Malian artist Ballake Sissoko has worked with everyone from African icons (Toumani Diabate) to blues masters (Taj Mahal) and Italian minimalist composers (Ludovico Einaudi). Vincent Segal has taken the cello into new realms as a musician with the French trip-hop group Bumcello and in collaborations with Sting and Elvis Costello. Sissoko and Segal struck up a friendship that blossomed into an elegant, rich acoustic collaboration. The unexpected intertwining of their instruments creates an intimate space for subtle, yet striking sounds flowing from African traditions and European classical roots. It’s chamber music for the 21st century.