Nuits d’Afrique | Zal Sissokho and Toumany Kouyaté, a Kora Highlight

Interview by Keithy Antoine
Genres and styles : Africa / West African traditional music

Additional Information

Every year, the Nuit de la kora, a highlight of the Nuits d’Afrique international festival, honors the virtuosos of the Mandingo tradition. This Sunday, July 13 at the Gesù, 8pm, humble guardians of memory will bring the kora to life – an instrument as majestic as it is symbolic. Among them, Zal Sissokho, an emblematic figure on the Montreal world music scene, shines for his authenticity and his ability to bring together the actors of his culture and the others with whom he now exchanges.

Nominated for the Gala Dynastie 2025, he likes, in his own words, “to marry his reality with the cultural baggage of the kora”. Alongside him, Senegalese kora master Toumany Kouyaté impresses with his precise playing and stage presence. Griot and musician on Cirque du Soleil’s O show – seen by over 20 million spectators – he perpetuates, string after string, the soul of an ancestral heritage. An unforgettable rendezvous under the banner of beauty and transmission. For PAN M 360, Keithy Antoine chatted with Zal Sisshoko to whet our appetites!

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