Lucy Durán will introduce her film BALLAKE SISSOKO KORA TALES filmed in Mali. In this 52” documentary film, (with English subtitles), award-winning Malian kora player Ballaké Sissoko takes us on a unique journey through Mali, Senegal and Gambia to follow the trail of the kora, a unique West African harp with 21 strings, said to have been created by the djinns. There will be a Q&A after the screening.
Lucy Durán, Professor Emerita at SOAS University of London, is an award-winning academic, music producer, broadcaster and documentary film maker, focusing primarily on music from the Mande world of West Africa, particularly that of the kora. She is based in the UK but is of Spanish nationality. She launched the international careers of famed kora players (the late) Toumani Diabaté, producing six albums by him from 1987 onwards, including the Grammy-nominated album Toumani & Sidiki (World Circuit). She also launched the international career of Ballaké Sissoko, whom she produced on the celebrated album New Ancient Strings (now reissued on vinyl by UK label Chrysalis). She has received three Grammy nominations and many awards for her albums of Malian music. She also specializes in Latino and Cuban music, winning a Sony Award for her BBC World Service radio series “Latins in the USA”.
Her film ‘The Voice of Tradition: Bako Dagnon and Family’ won the prize for “Best AHRC- funded film since 1998” in the AHRC’s Research In Film awards, 2015; it is posted on YouTube.
For 27 years Durán presented radio features on music for the BBC’s World Service, Radio 3 & Radio 4. Many of her programmes were recorded on location in Africa, including Mozambique, Zanzibar, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, the Saharawi Democratic Republic (southern Algeria), Ethiopia and South Africa. She was the presenter of the acclaimed weekly one-hour radio programme, World Routes on BBC Radio 3 from 2000-2013 which can be listened to here..
Durán’s publications include pioneering and influential research on Malian music, including that of Oumou Sangaré, on the ngoni and its possible connections with the Blues, on the kora and its origins, and on the handclapping songs of young Malian girls. In 2015-16, she was appointed advisor/consultant/composer/translator (Mandinka-English) by the production team of the TV series ROOTS – for which she also composed six new songs in Mandinka, working on location in South Africa during the filming under direction of producer Philip Noyce.
Durán co-produced the multi-award-winning album Ladilikan featuring the celebrated Kronos Quartet from San Francisco, in duet with Trio Da Kali from Mali. She was inducted into the KRONOS QUARTET HALL OF FAME in 2019. The Kronos Quartet commissioned her to make a film, Tegere Tulon: Handclapping Songs of Mali, which was nominated for best short documentary in the Cannes PanAfrican Film Festival, 2021.
Durán is co-director and writer (with French-North African film-maker Laurent Benhamou) of an unprecedented 52” documentary on the kora, Ballaké Sissoko, Kora Tales (Oléo Films, 2023) which has been screened in major international film festivals around the world to critical acclaim including Vues d’Afrique in Montreal, NYAFF (New York) and Encounters South African Documentary International Festival (Cape Town) 2024. The film has received numerous laurels, including Best Artist Film (Feature) in the Berlin Indie Film Festival 2023.