L’Ecole de musique de Kirina offers a dynamic music and dance program to 200 students. The creation of the program began in 2009 when Mahamadou Diabaté, brother of Grammy Award-winning Kora player, Toumani Diabaté, and a wonderful musician in his own right, approached us about building a music school in his native country of Mali. The school is located in the village of Kirina, near Mali’s capital city, Bamako.

Kirina is a Griot village, that holds 70 generations of cultural heritage. The Griots play an essential role in Malian culture; they are the keepers of oral history and traditions, passing them on through music and poetry. Kirina has been preserving its unique heritage for more than 700 years and the school helps the people of Kirina preserve and share their cultural heritage and musical traditions. The music school offers classes in kora, percussions, balafon, dance and modern music.  We introduced language classes in French and English as well as an evening class program where teachers from the public school are coming each week to the music school to give extra lessons in English, French, and Sciences.