Music school in Kirina, Mali: work in progress (English/ Español/ Français)

by Francois Viguie

A few months ago, the Playing for Change Foundation started its third music school on the African continent. The school is located in the village of Kirina, 40 kilometers south from Bamako, Mali. Kirina is a griot village without any electricity network and a place where the inhabitants live in little houses with straw roofs made of bricks that have dried from the sun’s heat. The Griots play an essential role in the Malian culture: they transmit the oral traditions trough music and poetry. It is now our third trip to Kirina, thanks to our great friend and musician, Mahamadou Diabaté, brother of one of the greatest Kora players in the planet, Toumani Diabaté...

Help PFCF Provide Musical Intruments to Children in Mali

Our newest music school in Kirina, Mali, is nearly complete - now all we need are the instruments!

Traditional West-African Music Education

by Ecole De Musique de Kirina

Following the centuries-old Griot traditions, these classes focus on teaching traditional instruments such as Kora, Balafon, Tama, Djembé, and introduce an approach to musical theory. Classes are also given in dance, chant, English and French.

News from the Ground in Mali!

by Francois Viguie

Exactly one year ago, the Playing for Change Foundation crew was heading to Kirina for the first time, with a dream in its mind: to create a music school in that village in order to offer a space for their music and culture to be transmitted to the new generations. Today this dream has become a reality. When we arrived at the school this morning some kids were already playing music in the classrooms, jamming together while waiting for the teachers to start the classes. It’s hard to describe the sensation of seeing those kids playing music and dancing so naturally: 700 years of musical tradition in the village certainly helps.

Nadjo Kouyate

by Francois Viguie

Nadjo Kouyaté is 10 years old and studies balafon at the music school.  His talent and sense of rhythm surprised our teachers since the very first balafon class. His grandfather was a famous local balafon player, born and raised in Kirina.  When he died he hadn’t transmitted his musical knowledge to his son who decided to go to Guinea to learn balafon in order to honor his father. He never became a famous player like his father but when the music school opened its doors he encouraged his son to learn and study balafon. The young Nadjo seems to realize how important this is for his father and already demonstrates passion, perseverance and talent.

Una visita por la escuela de música de Kirina, Mali

by Francois Viguie

La Escuela de Musica de Kirina es la ultima escuela creada por la Fundacion Playing For Change: ha abierto sus puertas en octubre del 2010.

Une visite à l’Ecole de musique de Kirina, Mali

by Francois Viguie

L’école de musique de Kirina est la dernière école de musique créée par la Fondation Playing For Change.

A Visit to Kirina’s New Music School

by Francois Viguie

The Music School of Kirina is the latest music school created by the Playing For Change Foundation. It opened its doors in October 2010.

Kirina Students to Perform at Festival de Ciwara

by Ecole De Musique de Kirina

This Sunday, for the first time since the school in Mali opened, a group of 20 kids from Kirina are going to travel to Kati (100 km) to perform percussion and dance at the Festival de Ciwara.

The festival is a celebration of arts, music and stories presented by children of the theater and cinema class at the Ciwara school and the kids from L’ecole de Musique de Kirina.

A Sad Day in Kirina

by Francois Viguie

A sad day in Kirina: Youssoufou passed away.

A couple of months ago we started a new program at the Kirina Music School: traditional history.
Our teacher was Youssoufou Kamissoko, a 90 year-old wise man who was a descendant of the founders of Kirina. He knew perfectly the long history of Kirina and the history of Mali in general. Every week he traveled to the music school to tell the history of Kirina, and of the Malian Empire to all the village. I say “all the village” because it was not only students from the music school that attended Youssoufou’s classes. Teachers from the public school attended; villagers—men and women eager to learn more about their deep roots attended. We filmed some of these classes in order to document his knowledge and some of the stories he told.

Tama

The Tama or “Talking Drum” is a traditional percussion instrument very popular all over West Africa. It is traditionally a Griot instrument and it is considered one of the oldest percussion instruments in West Africa. The particularity of this instrument is that its tone can be pitched by pressing or releasing the strings that hold the skin. It was traditionally used to announce meetings in the villages and gather the villagers. Our tama teacher, Mountaga is a master tama player and handcrafter, and he is able to carve a tama is a few minutes!

Djembe

The djembé is maybe the most popular West African instrument. The djembé is a native percussion instrument in Kirina as its origins are traditionally located between Guinea (50 km south from Kirina) and Bamako ( 50 km north of Kirina).  In the Bambara language, its name is derived from two words : “djé” which means “to gather” and “bé” translated as “peace”. The djembé is usually associated with dunduns which are the traditional bass drums. The djembé classes are led by different local teachers and often associated with the dance classes.

Balafon

The balafon is a tuned West African percussion instrument.  It is the ancestor of the marimba, xylophone and vibraphone, and has been known of in the Malian Empire since the 12th century. There are different types of balafons but the balafon taught in Kirina is the Malinké balafon, whose notes are displayed from left to right on a chromatic scale.

Traditional History

The village of Kirina has exited since the 13th century.  In 1235, during the Battle of Kirina,  the Ghana Empire was defeated by the Mandinka prince Soundiata Keita. Since then Kirina has remained a historical and spiritual symbol for many West Africans. We decided to set up a new discipline at the music school: traditional history, where anybody from the village can come and listen to the traditional stories told by the elders of the village.

French & English

In addition to the music classes, our mission is to help the kids to prepare for their future in other ways. We decided to introduce language classes at the music school after an agreement with the teachers of the public school. The idea of those classes is to give to our students the tools to be able to understand and compare their native language (Malinké) with French and English. The classes focus on basic vocabulary and grammar, as well as music vocabulary. Seydou Dembelé, who is also the administrator of the school and as been an English teacher for years in Bamako, is also our language teacher at the music school.

Kora

by Francois Viguie

The kora is a traditional West African instrument made with a large calabash, which is a type of gourdnative to the area.  The kora is the “king” of the instruments in the Griot culture. It traditionally has 21 strings and according to the legend, it was given to the Griots by the Devil in Guinea Bissau. Learning to play the kora requires tremendous discipline and passion; that’s why the kora groups at the school, led by master Griot player Ladji Diabaté, don’t exceed 15 students.

Dance

by Ecole De Musique de Kirina

Almost every kid in Kirina could hold their own with professional dancers in western countries.  The dance is a natural discipline that every kid learns from his very early age. The dance classes at the school are pure moments of joy and music. Most of the students are girls and all the classes are given by our extraordinary dance teacher, Oumou Mariko, and accompanied by a local percussion band.

Musical History and Theory

by Francois Viguie

One of the dreams of Mahamadou Diabaté, director of the music school, is to be able to work with the students to transcribe popular local themes to sheet music. This is in paradox to the oral tradition of the Griots, but it is Diabate’s bope that it will help preserve the traditional themes for future generations.  The first step towards this goal is an initiation to musical theory as a tool to be able to understand music in a different way than the traditional way.  The classes, taught by Diabate, also introduce different types of music to the students such as jazz, blues, reggae, and rock ‘n’ roll.  Since there is no electricity in Kirina, the children listen to these new types of music on a CD/MP3 player at the school powered by a car battery.

First year of classes at the Music School of Kirina in Mali

by Francois Viguie

Just one year ago, the Music School of Kirina, Mali, started to offer classes in traditional music and dance to the children of this outstanding West African village. The process of creating and building this school has been an unforgettable journey, and was carried on through the active participation of the villagers.

The school focuses on traditional music offering classes in dance, kora, balafon, tama, percussion, musical theory and history. The teachers of the music school have been enrolled for their pedagogic capacities, their talent as musicians and their commitment to the transmission of African culture. Seydou Dembelé, our head administrator also gives classes in French and English. Though French is the official language in Mali, most of the kids don’t speak French very well, despite the fact that all the classes at the public school are taught in this language.

The Change Is Here

by Francois Viguie & Mark Johnson

Today we share a new video celebrating a recent journey to visit our new music school in Kirina, Mali. This thousand-year-old village has no electricity or running water, but enough happiness and soul to fill all of our hearts. Join music legends, Baaba Maal, Toumani Diabate and Habib Koite to experience the joy, laughter and music that will now be preserved and most importantly shared with all of us. Together we change the world, one school and one song at a time.

Work Begins on New Classroom in Mali

by Francois Viguie

Despite a political crisis in Bamako, and a very uncertain situation in the North of the country, the Music School in Kirina is thriving and we have started new extension works this week. This extension represents a crucial step for the development of the project and we are very excited about it. The first structure that we are building is an open-air dance classroom. The classrooms of the music school were too small to welcome all our dance students in optimal conditions and this new space will allow our fantastic dance teacher, Oumou Mariko, and his students to express themselves in an adapted space. The open-air classroom will also be a multitask space that will be used for music instruction, performances, and workshops.