We had an incredible time at African Classical – our mini-festival collaboration with The African Concert Series, featuring DJ sets, live music and a panel discussion exploring the diversity of musical styles from Africa.
At IKLECTIK on Wednesday 4 May we kicked off our mini-festival with a night of new collaborations, electro-acoustic music and DJ sets. Tunde Jegede opened the night with performances on kora and cello, followed by pianist Rebeca Omordia and composer Gabriel Prokofiev’s set for piano intertwined with field recordings. Tunde then returned to the stage to perform his own work Mirrors of Memory for kora and piano with Rebeca. Sound artist and violist Ibukun Sunday closed the night, first performing a short collaborative set for kora and electronics with Tunde before taking to his instrument for a piece involving solo viola, electronics and video projection. The programme closed with Ibukun’s live electronics set, followed by DJ sets from Gabriel.
Our event continued on Sunday 8 May at The Africa Centre with a lively panel discussion on Re(defining) African classical music followed by DJ sets from Blasio Kavuma and live music from Bex Burch, Afla Sackey and Krar Collective. Bex and Afla came together to perform music from different regions of Ghana for voice, djembe and gyil (Ghanaian balafon or xylophone). Krar Collective wrapped up our mini-festival with songs and instrumental music from Ethiopia.
