THE WORLD CONNECTED THROUGH MUSIC

Music is a movement, a constant change, a kind of journey. The grandmaster of the lute sitar, Kiya Tabassian, a native of Tehran, knows enough about this. In 1990, he left Iran for Montreal, where he founded the Constantinople ensemble, which forms a bridge between the Western and Eastern traditions. However, Kiya is looking for, and finding, unexpected links in the South as well. For the Traversées project, he addressed Ablay Cissoko, the singer and renowned kora (an African lute) player. This native of Kolda, Senegal, carries the thousand-year-old tradition of the Mandinka people of Africa, like Kiya the Persian tradition. Together, they explore the very roots of music, where folk art meets classical music. In this context, let us remind ourselves that two thousand years ago Saints Simon and Jude also travelled through Africa and Persia.