Traversées - Constantinople and Ablaye Cissoko

Seating is limited. Reserve your seat in advance to pick where you sit ($6 fee per seat). Join the standby line for remaining seats on the day of the concert, free of charge.

Everywhere, from time immemorial, the Word has been embodied by the bard, the troubadour, the griot. These wordsmiths, at once messengers and peacemakers, are the links with the forces of nature, the inexpressible divine, the memory of the ancients. It falls to them to maintain the realm of the collective soul.

Nowadays, these freethinkers and travellers are making the world their garden… Like Constantinople’s musicians and Ablaye Cissoko, griot from Saint-Louis, Senegal, all eternally migrating birds. This meeting between Ablaye and Constantinople, between strings and vocals, goes back in time to evoke the beauty of being. It is a joint passage through the common sites of the imagination, like a long breath before the inexorable march of the world and time.

From the start, this dialogue between the kora and the setar seemed to come from the depths of the earth, as though these instruments, along with the double bass and percussion, had always existed side by side. This natural symbiosis gave us wings to fly towards distant horizons, and our music has been heard over one hundred time in various festivals and halls around the world.

This exceptional harmony that exists today between our music and our selves has allowed us to create works inspired by our inner gardens and shared voyages, which we present to you with this concert.

About Constantinople:

Constantinople aims to anchor music’s place in the heart of our community and encourage cross-cultural musical making and exchanges among artists from around the world.

Since its founding, the ensemble promotes the creation of new works incorporating musical elements of diverse musical traditions around the world, drawing from medieval manuscripts to a contemporary aesthetic, passing by Mediterranean Europe to Eastern traditions and New World Baroque.

About Ablaye Cissoko:

Kimintang Mahamadou Cissoko, aka Ablaye Cissoko, was born in Kolda (Senegal) from a Griot family. His first appearance on stage with his kora was at the age of 12, before he joined the Conservatoire of music in Dakar.

Living nowadays in Saint-Louis, he is an eternal traveller as a part of a new generation of artists who incarnate the crossover between Mandinka traditions and contemporary musical creation. Since 2002, he plays all around the world, from Africa to Europe and America, and makes collaborations with famous world music and jazz international artists such as Randy Weston, François Jeanneau, Majid Bekkas, Richard Galliano, Benat Achiary, Volker Goetze or La Chimera ensemble directed by Eduardo Egüez.

This performance is part of the 2025-2026 Meyer Concert Series season.

The Bill and Mary Meyer Concert Series is generously made possible by the Bill and Mary Meyer Concert Series Endowment. Suntory is the Lead Corporate Sponsor of the 2025-2026 concert series.

Image credit to Samadoss Maitoul.