FirstWorks

FirstWorks is thrilled to deepen our programming of West African music by bringing Malian-born, Massachusetts-based balafon player Balla Kouyaté, with longtime collaborator cellist Mike Block, to RI for a public performance and education engagements. An acclaimed cultural producer, Kouyaté is an NEA National Heritage Fellow and has toured extensively educating on his musical background in the Djeli line, an unbroken lineage of balafon players lasting for 800 years. Kouyaté‘s music explores jazz and other Western forms while remaining consciously rooted in the Mandé traditions.

Kouyaté and Block's musical fusion will draw audiences to the renovated Providence Public Library auditorium in RI launching a new series for audiences to experience live performance and be part of our touring assemblies program for students. Kouyaté and Block, a classically trained Grammy Award-winning musician with the Silkroad Ensemble, meld their musical practices to produce new sounds and connections