: Artists

Léo Ullmann

Léo Ullmann began his musical education at the Conservatoire du 10ème arrondissement de Paris in the class of Julien Dieudegard, where he acquired the basics of the violin and the passion to go further.

In June 2016, after five years of intensive study, he brilliantly completed his studies at the “Koninkjlijk Conservatorium” in Brussels in the class of the great Russian violinist Valéry Oïstrakh. In June 2017, he obtained his Master’s degree in pedagogy.

During his apprenticeship, he took part in the Master-Class of Laurent Korcia, Dong-Suk Kang, Pavel Vernikov, Philippe Graffin, Sarah Nemtamu, Stephan Picard, the Talich Quartet, etc.

In 2018 at the Abbaye de Noirlac (France), he recorded an album with the Ensemble “Résonance” with countertenor Samuel Cattiau, guitarist Quentin Dujardin (guitar), Matthieu Saglio (cello) and Iranian percussionist Bijan Chemirani.

In 2019, he took part as a sideman in the new Quartet of the cellist Matthieu Saglio and recorded an album with this formation which includes Vincent Peirani, Nguyên Lê, etc.

In December 2019, he won in Budapest (Hungary), the Second Grand Prize of the first edition of the “Roby Lakatos International Violin Competition”.

He plays with artists such as: Serge Camps, Angelo Debarre, Adrien Moignard, Sébastien Giniaux (guitars), Chérif Soumano (kora), Costel Nitescu (violin), Roberto de Brasov (accordion), Rona Hartner (singer), Jenő Lisztes (cymbalum), Frank Anastasio (double bass).

At the same time, from a very young age, he was passionate for gypsy music and jazz and has been playing in the Roby Lakatos Ensemble as second violin (concerts in Belgium, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Corsica, Hungary, Croatia).

Roby Lakatos

Roby Lakatos is not only a virtuoso on the violin, but also an extremely versatile musician who is equally adept to performing classical music, jazz, and the folk idiom of his home country of Hungary. He is hard to define: most often, he is described as a Gypsy violinist, a devil’s fiddler, classical master, jazz improviser, composer and arranger – and his unique artistic personality is all that. He is a universal musician combining brilliant technique that makes him one of the best violinists in the world with creativity in improvisation and composing power.

Roby Lakatos was born in 1965 to a legendary family of Romani musicians as a member of the seventh generation of direct descendants to János Bihari – the famous “King of Gipsy Violinists”, who was admired by Ludwig Beethoven, introduced Johannes Brahms to the themes for his Hungarian Dances and of whom Franz Liszt said: “The sweet tones drawn from his magic violin fell like drops of nectar on our enchanted ears.” From early childhood, Roby Lakatos lived with the musical tradition of his family – he played in his uncle Sándor and father Antal’s band and appeared as the first violinist of a Gipsy orchestra at the age of nine.

Thus, he learned the tradition of violin technique and ornamentation at an early age, but also gained formal education at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest.

After winning the first prize for violin at the age of 19, he left for Belgium and first played in Liège, and then in the newly opened club Les Ateliers de la Grande Ile in Brussels, which quickly became a hotspot thanks to him and his ensemble. In the ten years of performing in the club, the ensemble attracted numerous fans: the shows were regularly visited by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, for example, and Roby made connections and collaborated with a number of musicians, including violinist Vadim Repin and his role model for violin jazz music performances Stéphane Grappeli.

His concert career developed gradually, and now Roby Lakatos spends most of his time performing in various stages around the world. His ensemble has appeared, among other places, at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, in Académies Musicales de Saintes, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Ludwigsburg Scholbfestspiele and the Helsinki Festival, as well as in prestigious concert halls (Santa Cecilia in Rome, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Zankel Hall – Carnegie Hall in New York). His versatility has given him and his ensemble the opportunity to collaborate with major orchestras – The London Symphony Orchestra, French National Radio orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, to name a few – as well as with numerous exceptional artists, including Giora Feidman, Herbie Hancock, Joshua Bell, Maksim Vengerow, Nigel Kennedy and Randy Brecker. In Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan he first performed in 1999, and has since been regularly playing in Asia. He records for Hungarian and Belgian television networks and has also appeared on German television and German national radio stations, as well as on BBC in London.

Roby plays a violin made by Fabien Gram.

Seven years after the release of their 1991 album Gypsy style for MW Records, The Roby Lakatos Ensemble recorded their first CD for Deutsche Grammophon, titled Lakatos. With a presentation of a unique style, which is a fusion of typical Gipsy music elements and jazz with improvisation as an important feature and specific technical effects, some of which he created himself (such as the fascinating left-hand pizzicato), Roby Lakatos and his ensemble also reflected a universal approach to the musical material by including on their CD the works by composers ranging from Zoltán Kódaly and Johannes Brahms to John Williams’s music for Schindler’s List and Charles Aznavour’s chanson La Bohème. This album, which received the prestigious German Echo Klassik award, was followed by four more releases for Deutsche Grammophon: Lakatos Gold and Post Phrasing (1998/1999), Live From Budapest (1999), and As Time Goes By (2002) offering an equally exciting combination of jazz and Gipsy music idioms with contemporary and classical elements. Apart from recording for other labels – With Musical Friends (Universal, 2001), Kinoshita Meets Lakatos (Prime Direction, Inc., 2002), Prokokiev… (Avanticlassic, 2005), Fire Dance (Avantijazz, 2006) – Roby Lakatos also started his own label Lakatos Recording Company to present somewhat different music, i.e. experimental works such as the project named The Legend of the Toad (2004), which is a sort of musical story told through his performances and the performances of his ensemble whose member, pianist Kálmán Cséki, also arranged the music.

Except for his long-time associate, violinist Lászlo Bóni, Roby Lakatos’s ensemble today is composed of young virtuoso musicians with classical musical education who are also well versed in the folklore tradition of Hungarian Gypsies.

Swiss GART acts as general worldwide management of Roby Lakatos.

Rouben Haroutounian

BIOGRAPHY

After studying music at the National Conservatory of Tehran (violin with Albert Minassian and classical guitar with Soler Aguilar) and in Paris (classical guitar with Javier Hinoijosa), Rouben Haroutunian leads workshops in Nice, Cannes, Argelès Gazost, Patrimonio, Arcachon, Paris, Ris Orangis (traditional music centre) as well as workshops in the conservatories of Rodez, Le Mans, Evry, Dugny, Bobigny, Milly la Forêt, and Vigneux on stage. He also gives concerts with Maguy Naîmi and Claude Worms in the conservatories already mentioned, as well as at the “Weltfestival del Laute” in Frankfurt. Since 1977, he has been a classical guitar teacher at the Fontenay aux roses cultural centre. As a founding member of the Armenian music ensemble Kotchnak (Ocora, Al.Sur), he participates in concerts and tours in France, Europe and the United States. From 1985 to 1991, he was appointed Artistic Director of the Lavedan International Guitar and Dance Festival (Hautes Pyrénées). From 1991 to 1998, he was in charge of musical creations for the company AIA (Atelier International de l’acteur). Rouben Haroutunian created the music for the following films:
The mysterious song of silence by Régis Ghezelbash (2005), Génération, directed by Thomas Malsoute (2006) and Nirvana, directed by Régis Ghezelbash (2007).

Raul Iaza

After classical music studies, Raul developed concert activities as a soloist specialized in ancient music research in Argentina and Italy. He also developed drama production and teaching activities and conducted a drama research project in this context at the Madrugada Theatre.

 

Since 1997, he has coordinated work within a research programme on scenic arts, focusing on the practical implementation of common cross-disciplinary principles in the artistic field, with the body and the person-in-action as instruments. As from 2000, he has been involved in several projects from the Odin Teatret in Denmark and has become drama production assistant to Eugenio Barba. He is also the national artistic coordinator for the MUS-E® programme of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in Italy, operated by the MUS-E Italia association.

 

In 2007, he concentrated on academic research work under the “Regula contra Regulam” project in cooperation with the Grotowski Institute in Poland. He was also invited as a workshop director by the National Scottish Theatre & the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and worked in South Korea within the framework of the Hooyong Performing Arts Center.

 

Raul currently conducts practical training workshops at the Teatro Real and the Córdoba University in Argentina and gives lectures on Grotowski’s cultural heritage.

 

Here is what the Green Voices approach inspired Raul to write:

“Discovering, finding out, meeting again, rediscovering… Meeting one another again and again for the sake of it, its sheer human value… Being able to get together amidst the dispersion of our globalized world… Sharing one’s “national homeland” with very different people, who are nonetheless connected together by “the homelands of transversal values”: passion, in-depth work, resistance to stupidity, dreaming of what is possible.

There is also the artistic adventure involved, synonymous with discovery – discovering what you knew nothing about, what you did not even imagine, what you thought was uninteresting, what you knew without being aware of it, what is hidden within.

I also have specific responsibilities within the MUSE programme from the human and artistic point of view. Children do not merely “understand” with their minds, their perceptions are also situated at sensory level. This is why MUSE artists need to revitalize their expressive and creative experiences. Later on in life children will remember the people they worked with and shared something with, far more than the results of their work.

I am very happy with this crossing of paths in my life: I have been working with the Odin Teatret for the past nine years and now, thanks to Green Voices, the path of MUS-E has crossed the path of the Odin Teatret. No one is a foreigner in that theatre. No one is a foreigner in MUS-E. These two parts of my artistic life can now meet. They might learn something about themselves in this meeting”.

Osvaldo Hernandez

BIOGRAPHY

Percussions, violin, mandolin, flutes

Born in IXMIQUILPAN-HIDALGO (Mexico) on January 17, 1964, he has been a percussionist for 20 years. He started with Latin American rhythms and then with Afro-Cuban. Based in Brussels, he plays and records with many groups (National Ballet of Mexico, Deep Forest, Carlos Dias, Rosa Brandão…). He is the most sought-after percussionist in Brussels for Latin American sounds.

He has studied traditional music from different parts of Latin America, Africa and Europe as well as different Indian, African and Latin American percussion techniques during his many travels, from which he has brought back an impressive collection of instruments and recordings. He studied Mexican traditional music in particular during a long three-year journey. He was advisor to the Musée instrumental de Bruxelles for the Latin American section.

Maria Lekranty

BIOGRAPHY

Maria Lekransy was born in the Netherlands but her roots are in Maluku, Indonesia. At the age of 12 she recorded two singles after winning a talent competition with Empat Serangkai, singing traditional Lagu2 music.
Over the years she approached and sang many different musical styles, working with famous Dutch and international musicians such as Will Tura, Soul Sister, Percy Sledge, Ruth Jacott, Candy Dulfer, Metropole Orchest, Charles Aznavour, Vaya Con Dios and many others.
Always faithful to the fusion Lagu2, she has released 2 albums with the Moluccan Moods Orchestra.  She writes, composes and gives concerts with his Parekata project (with which she played in Venice in 2011). She participates in vocal workshops, gives singing lessons and works as a coach. She performed with SJL Theater with director John Leerdam. She worked with the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation on the Voices for Tomorrow project. Since 1988 she has been working with Dani Klein as a chorister and participated in the Farewell Tour of Vaya Con Dios.

Sound and emotion are my mother tongue… From the East, in tune with the waves of the tide… To be a musical bridge between East and West… This is my strength and this is my talent

Samuel Cattiau

Photo © Fred Debacker

Samuel Cattiau discovers his voice with a high and precise range during his training in Applied Arts. He then worked on vocal technique, scenic presence and baroque music repertoire to present his first concerts as a vocal trio. He studied lyrical repertoire at the CRD in Valence-Romans (France).

After having presented for several years pieces and works of baroque operas (Monteverdi, J. Dowland, H. Purcell, G.F. Handel,…), he created Lux Aeterna, a programme of sacred music (A. Vivaldi, G. Fauré – Abbaye de Cluny) adapted for piano and voice. He is interested in medieval music but also in the repertoires of popular songs still practiced today.

Samuel Cattiau has developed a voice timbre over several octaves, from baritone to countertenor, around the sound identity of the places he crosses. Its repertoire – composed of sacred and secular texts – aims to restore a contemporary and lyrical artistic sense to texts, poems and scores from the medieval, renaissance, baroque, Latin, old French, old English, Italian, Gaelic-Portuguese, Spanish,…
He regularly researches old library collections, former seminars, private collections, in France and abroad.

For several years now, he has been meeting musicians from different traditions and cultures, instrumental and vocal practices, and monastic communities practicing singing. His research and interpretations are based on “written” music, oral transmission and improvisation.

Inspired by texts and works of early music, he created the Resonance program with guitarist and composer Quentin Dujardin (Belgium). In 2016, he became “ambassador artist” of the Yehudi Menuhin International Foundation.

His musical creations are presented in France and abroad in international festivals and in buildings of our religious and secular heritage, remarkable for their architecture, history and acoustics.

In 2019, he invited other musicians to join this extraordinary musical adventure linking Music and Heritage for a new album: “Illuminations”.

https://www.samuelcattiau.fr/

Carlo Dumont

BIOGRAPHY

The violinist Carlo Dumont is the artistic and administrative coordinator of the programme MUS-E® in Naples, Italy.

His musical education began in Naples, and continued in Rome, where he got his Violin Diploma with Aldo Redditi. He has continued studying in depth the main solo repertoire under the guidance of Franco Gulli. Furthermore he has specialized with Norbert Brainin (1st violin of the Amadeus Quartet) attending the “Special Three-Year Violin Course” at the School of Music of Fiesole. He has worked there with Giulio Franzetti (concertmaster at the Scala in Milan), attending the Special Course for Concertmaster in the Orchestra, studying in depth the related specific repertoire.

Along with his teaching activity, he performs solo violin recitals and in addition he plays in various chamber music ensembles, with which he has participated to many international tournees and festivals, both in Italy and in Europe, has played in the main Capital Cities and has collaborated with soloists such as: Bruno Giuranna, Antony Pay, Ursula Hollinger, Peter-Lukas Graf, Alessandro Carbonare, Jean-Francois Tollier, Luca Signorini, Bruno Mezzena, Luigi Piovano, Luis Bacalov, Francesco Manara and the Scala Quartet. He has been invited to play as concertmaster or as soloist by a large number of Symphonic and Chamber Orchestras, recording for the Italian Radio and Television.

In 1987, he met the Gabrieli String Quartet of London in Sermoneta during the “Courses of Instrumental Specialization and Musical Interpretation”. Thanks to their encouragement, he has concentrated on the string quartet and in such ensemble has played for the main associations, interpreter of the most meaningful quartet repertoire, from Bach to Berio. In 1995, after having listened to his performance, the Alban Berg Quartet invited him to study with them at the Musikhochschule of Lübeck (Germany). In 1997, the Amadeus Scholarship Fund awarded him a scholarship that allowed him to study with the Amadeus Quartet at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

He plays a 1848 Raffaele e Antonio Gagliano violin.

www.quartettogagliano.it

http://www.carlodumont.com/artist.php?view=bio

Picture © Maurizio De Fazio

Aleksandar Caric

copyright Manuel Azevedo

Musician, comedian and teacher, Aleksandar Caric works in Italy since 1991.

Born in Yugoslavia, Aleksandar Caric was a member in the eighties of the theatrical and musical improvisation company CirKo della primavera, with whom he produced numerous shows which were never rehearsed more than once in a constant search for new spaces and forms.

During this time, Aleksandar Caric, who is also a writer, directed the publication of a collection of books for Matica Srpska, a publishing house in Yugoslavia.

 

Aleksandar Caric is part of the Tatamata Teatro Company, founded in 1994 with Serena Galella; this street and open-air theatre company organizes large events for the Coast to Coast festival of Palmi and Gerace in Calabria. Over the last ten years the performances of the Tatamata Teatro toured all the regions of Italy and various European countries, as well as South America and Asia.

Since 2003, he is the artistic director of the uličnih svirača Festival, an international street music festival in Novi Sad, Serbia. Since 2005, Aleksandar Caric is an external teacher in several primary schools in Rome (children aged between 6 and 10), in the framework of the MUS-E programme supported by the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.

Aleksandar Caric also collaborated with numerous comedians and musicians as a comedian, musician and musical composer in theatre and dance shows as well as in European and international events and festivals.

 

Karim Baggili

Belgian, of Jordanian – Yougoslav origins, Karim Baggili is a composer and self-taught guitarist and oud player.

He performs regularly in Belgium and also abroad. Additionally he works on numerous projects as a composer or arranger for albums, documentaries and short films.

After his last four albums Douar, Cuatro con Cuatro, Lea & Kash and Kali City released by homerecords.be, Karim released a new album, “Apollo You Sixteen” under the label Take The Bus.

As a follow up to his fifth album “Apollo You Sixteen” released last year, he presented his new CD “Apollo You Sixteen (Part II) in exclusivity at L’Ancienne Belgique on the 28th of October 2017. He’s now on tour with the Apollo You Sixteen Duology. Karim is a generous, passionate and a surprising artist!

NOMINATIONS & AWARDS

2000 – Winner of the first prize at the “Open String Festival” in Osnabruck, Germany.
2011 – Nominated at the Octaves de la Musique – World Music category – Album – Lea & Kash
2011 – Nominated at the 10th Independent Music Awards – Best Album for Lea & Kash.
2011 – Winner of the VOX POPULI VOTE – public’s prize at the 10th Independent Music Awards- Best Album- World Beat category for Lea & Kash
2014 – Nominated at the Octaves de la Musique – World Music category – Album – Kali City
2014 – Nominated at the 13th Independent Music Awards – Best Album for Kali City
2016 – Karim has been nominated for the Sabam Awards, category Best film Score for “Waiting for August” by Teodora Mihai.
2017 – Nominated at the Octaves de la Musique – World Music category – Album – Apollo You Sixteen

2018 – Nominated at the Octaves de la Musique – World Music category – Album – Apollo You Sixteen Part 2

2018 – Winner of the Award for 16th Independent Music Awards World Beat Album – Apollo You Sixteen

2018 – Winner of the Award for 16th Independent Music Awards World Beat Song – Exitimuse

2018 – Nominated for Best World Music Artist at the Sabam Awards

Milton Paulo

Biography

After completing training in contemporary dance in his native Brazil in 1994, Milton followed additional courses at the Colégio de Dança do Ceará in 1999. He took classes in drama, acrobatics, movement analysis, contact improvisation and yoga. He also completed a course in Brussels on the muscle and articulation chains’ GDS method. As a dancer, he joined the cast of the As Palavras cie Claudio Bernardo in 2000 and took part in several shows, including “Le Sacre – O Sacrifício” in 2000, “Paixão” in 2002, “The Waves” in 2004, “Nomes” in 2005 and an improvisation evening performance entitled “Mouvements pour Etude sur les Effets” with the “Musique Nouvelle” Ensemble conducted by Jean-Paul Dessy playing music by Philippe Libois. Milton also took part in a creation entitled “Standing Wave” with the Bud Blumenthal/Hybrid Cie (at the Danse d’Arcadi, Festival Hors Saison in Paris). As a contributor and a dance teacher, Milton has worked for a few years on an educational session integrating dance concepts into the development of an awareness of movement through somatic experience (body practices with the aim of tuning in to oneself and restoring a more organic rhythm between the structures and systems of the whole body). As a choreographer, Milton has worked on a number of shows. For the 2008-2009 season, he set to work on a new creation with choreographer and dancer Raffaella Pollastrini, developing a duo on the concepts of losing one’s bearings and being uprooted.

Art form: dancer, contemporary

The Brussels Chamber Orchestra (BCO)

The Brussels Chamber Orchestra (BCO)

 

In 1999, the common passion and investment of young people virutosos for chamber music gave birth to the Brussels Chamber Orchestra. With six different nationalities, the BCO is a formidable cultural and artistic laboratory in the heart of Europe. Each work executed is enriched by this mixture of Asian and European cultures. The deep search for a specific style gives a unique sound to the group. The BCO masters a wide repertoire, from Vivaldi to Britten, including Mozart, Elgar, Bartók, Piazzolla, Hindemith or Schoenberg.

Their talent has attracted prestigious musicians who have shared the stage with the BCO such as violonists Ivry Gitlis, Gilles Apap, Igor Oitrakh, Maxim Vengerov, Dora Schawrzeberg, Janine Jansen, Sergei Krylov, Pierre Amoyal, Lorenzo Gatto, and many other.

The BCO is involved in the creation of educational projects and has the priviledge of being an ambassador of the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.

Patries Wichers

 Biography

Patries Wichers was born in 1959 in the Netherlands from Indonesian parents.She trained as a painter in the Royal Art Academy of ’s-Hertogenbosch (NL) with a degree in Pedagogy and Didactics for artists.Until 2000, she worked on a painting career with exhibitions and grants. Patries Wichers worked also in fashion and theatre and thanks to this experience still draws a lot of inspiration for working with children.In 1991, during her first journey in Indonesia, she had an encounter with traditional and contemporary singing on Java and Bali, recognition of something deep inside of her….From 1994, she starts using her voice working with other people: The Bald and Beautiful: jazz-standards, Vinyl Dumbbells: funk-rock.Since 1998, she created Bateau Lavoir:(practising and performing), Free Improvisation (collaborations with: Archie Shepp-NY, Tri-Factor-Chicago).Since 2000 she is working with children in the MUS-E project and different museums (Fine Arts, Ethnographic and Contemporary Arts).

Art form: multidisciplinary artist

Website: http://www.patrieswichers.com/

Matthieu Saglio

Thanks to an immediately distinctive sound and to a range of great diversity, the French cellist Matthieu Saglio has established himself as one of the most fascinating cello players of his generation. He is presently settled in Valencia, Spain. Out of a classical background (at the Conservatory of Rennes), he is one of the pioneers in introducing cello to flamenco with his band Jerez-Texas, which has been touring around the world since 2002. At the same time, Matthieu multiplies solo, duo and band projects as well as accompanying numerous groups. In 2015 he creates the trio NES. Intensively touring, the band takes off after releasing the album ‘Ahlam’ in 2018 by the prestigious German label ACT. Unanimously welcome by international review, their concerts rapidly increased throughout Europe.

In 2020, Matthieu releases a new album, ‘El camino de los vientos’ (The way of the winds), with the great label ACT. The album vibrates from all the influences which forged the musical soul of the composer and cello-player. To give substance to this peculiar universe, Matthieu invited the musicians that were important to him, as a plain listener or as a travelling companion. El camino de los vientos is thus crossed by winds joining up from all horizons and carrying along with them major names of European jazz (Nguyên Lê, Nils Petter Molvaer, Carles Benavent, Vincent Peirani, Steve Shehan, Bijan Chemirani, etc.).

His qualities as a composer are regularly demanded for the creation of original soundtracks both for theatre or television.

One undeniable goal guides the musician in all his projects: to start a dialogue between his instrument and other cultures. He has hence been nominated as artist ambassador at the International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.

Art form: musician, cello

N’Faly Kouyate

Biography

NíFaly Kouyate was born into one of the the most famous families of griots of the Mandingue, the region of West Africa which includes Guinea-Conakry, Mali, the Gambia, Senegal, and Burkina Faso. As one of the most charismatic performers of his generation, NíFaly is ideally placed to carry on the legacy of his father and also to help promote knowledge, enjoyment, and respect for his culture. He is the son of Konkoba Kabinet Kouyate of Siguiri, in the Republic of Guinea. Konkoba is a rare grade of griot, superior among griots. This rare grade (there exist fewer than three in the world today) was acquired by Kabinet through achieving difficult tests and gaining a perfect mastery of the mystical secrets of Mandingue life, composed of its deep occult wisdom and the profound magic of the Mandingue world. Nífaly is joyfully following in the footsteps of his father, seeing his preordained role of griot as both a responsibility and a means of explaining the beauties of the Mandingue culture to the rest of the world. Through his performances, he uses music and storytelling as a way to open doors between different peoples and cultures, striving always to tell about his culture while embracing others, with a profund sense of inclusion rather than exclusion, of unity between cultures and finally, our shared humanity. In his solo career, he works extensively in Belgium and, indeed, throughout Europe, to teach the history of the Mandingue. Through these performances, he proposes to advance not only his culture, but his dream of the realization of understanding and tolerance among all cultures of the world. To this end, he works with his wife Muriel Finet Kouyate in their organization Namunkanda (The Defense of Culture). Through Namunkanda, he hopes to realize his goal of making certain that contributions of all, both musical and cultural, be appreciated. He is a tireless advocate of his culture, yet his love of collaboration and discovering new worlds leaves him open to all experiences. Comfortable in many worlds, he lives by his fatherís early counsel to respect and embrace new ideas; this viewpoint is deeply embodied in both his recorded and live work. He also pursues his career and goals through his work with his own ensemble Dunyakan (ìThe Voice of the Worldî) in which blues, world music, jazz and the traditional music of Guinea are intermingled. This is perhaps where his true heart lies. Their music includes traditional instruments such as the kora, djembe, balafon, and more traditional Western instruments such as the guitar, double bass and the drum battery. Their polyphonies are largely inspired by the music of Guinea, and their reliance on these lends sweetness to the rhythms, giving Dunyakan a unique sound in the cadre of ìworld music.î Dunyakan has its own unique identity, intensely personal, formed by NíFalyís ideals and dreams.

Art form: musician and singer

Website: https://folothesource.com/nfalykouyate/