A luminous encounter of kindred musicians where strings and voices embody the beauty of Persian and Mandinka music, presented by the ensemble Constantinople.
Constantinople play the Joseph Strug Concert Hall on Sunday 18 October, bringing their piece Estuary to Halifax. It's a trio of kindred musicians—Kiya Tabassian on setar and voice, Ablaye Cissoko on kora and voice, and Patrick Graham on percussion—and the whole thing is built around the meeting of Persian and Mandinka music.
The setar is a long-necked lute from Iran; the kora is a 21-string harp from West Africa. Between them, they cover a lot of ground, and the percussion holds it together. The two singers bring their own voices into the mix, so you'll hear both the instruments and the singing. The ensemble has been touring together for over a decade, and they describe Estuary as a luminous encounter where strings and voices embody the beauty of those two traditions. The title comes from the estuary itself, which they imagine as a space of transition and transformation—a place where different waters meet and change into something else.
That's a good way to think about the music, too. The setar, the kora, and the percussion intertwine, with rhythms and subtleties the three have honed over years of playing together. It's not a one-off collaboration; it's a piece they've lived with and refined on stages around the world. The setar and kora are both plucked string instruments, and they sit in a similar register, so they weave around each other rather than fighting for space. The percussion provides the pulse that keeps the whole thing moving.
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The concert is at the Joseph Strug Concert Hall, 1385 Seymour Street, and it starts at 20:00.
