Volume 23 Issue 7 - April 2018

Arts Centre in St. Catharines.
Ensemble Constantinople “Under the Senegalese Musical Sky”
April 13 the Aga Khan Museum presents “Under the Senegalese
Musical Sky,” featuring the Montreal-based Ensemble Constantinople
directed by Kiya Tabassian, and guest Senegalese musician Ablaye
Cissoko. Inspired by the ancient city illuminating East and West,
Ensemble Constantinople was conceived as a forum for encounters
and cross-fertilization. In its two-decade career it has explored many
musical genres and historical periods, from medieval manuscripts
to contemporary aesthetics, from Mediterranean Europe to Eastern
traditions.
MICHAEL SLOBODIAN
Ablaye Cissoko (left) and Ensemble Constantinople
Last fall the Aga Khan Museum inaugurated a series of performances
titled “Conversation Nation,” linked thematically to its HERE
exhibition. Using Ensemble Constantinople as the house band, four
musical pairings, each with a different national focus and guest musician,
were programmed. The series launched in October 2017 with
“Under the Syrian Musical Sky.”
The scene shifts to Senegal April 13, with the master kora player,
vocalist and composer Cissoko. Born into a Mandingo griot (troubadour/historian)
family, Cissoko has developed an international concert
and recording career playing music characterized as “at the confluence
of African music and jazz.”
Ensemble Constantinople has worked with Cissoko since 2014,
forging innovative encounters between Mandinka and Persian classical
music, set within a transnational world music aesthetic.
Their 2015 collaborative album Jardins migrateurs (Itinerant Gardens)
garnered critical plaudits for “conveying a sense of effortless invention
grounded in unassuming technical masterery.” We can expect another
masterclass in gentle transcultural music from this quartet on April 13.
Taiko Plus! Esprit Orchestra with guest group Nagata Shachu
Although I’ve followed the trailblazing Esprit Orchestra since its
inception, I rarely get a chance to write about its music in this column.
Why? As Canada’s only full-sized professional orchestra devoted to
performing new orchestral music, it usually falls outside my world
music beat. Not this month.
On April 15, the 65-member Esprit Orchestra, under the direction of
Alex Pauk, assays the transcultural embedded at the core of contemporary
orchestral music in its Koerner Hall concert. The work in question
is Japanese composer Maki Ishii’s Mono-Prism (1976), scored
for orchestra and a group of seven taiko drummers. Under the direction
of Toronto’s Kiyoshi Nagata, members of his veteran taiko group
Nagata Shachu perform those demanding drum parts.
I caught up with Esprit conductor Alex Pauk on the phone recently.
“This isn’t the first Ishii work with non-orchestral percussion we’ve
played. In a past season we performed his Afro-Concerto (1982) which
uses African drums. The earlier Mono-Prism had its roots in Ishii’s
extended studies with Ondekoza, the founding group of the modern
taiko movement.”
Mono-Prism, the first work for orchestra and taiko, was premiered
in 1976 by conductor Seiji Ozawa at the Tanglewood Music Festival,
with Ondekoza playing the taiko parts. Its compelling energy,
AT THE AGA KHAN MUSEUM
In Under the Senegalese Musical Sky,
Montreal ensemble Constantinople and
griot Ablaye Cissoko create rich new music
by uniting the traditions of the Mandinka
Kingdom and the Persian Empire.
FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 8:30 PM
$40, $36 Friends
Includes same-day Museum admission
Tickets at agakhanmuseum.org
A co-presentation with
thewholenote.com April 2018 | 27