PRINCETON, NJ — Princeton University’s Music Department will be hosting the Timbuktu Grooves Festival from Sept. 29 – Oct. 1.
The festival will be led by Olivier Tarpaga, a Lester Horton Award-winning choreographer and director of the African Music Ensembles at Princeton since 2017.
“Timbuktu was historically an intellectual and spiritual center in the Mali empire. It’s a city of resilience which echoes the resilience of Princetonians. Our first mission is to promote the beauty, positivity, and creativity of the continent of Africa throughout the performing arts,” said Director of African Music Ensembles Olivier Tarpaga.
“It is crucial for me to represent this vast, diverse, fascinating, and sometimes misunderstood continent at the traditional and urban level because Africa is contemporary.”
The festival will kickoff with Tarpaga’s humanist piece “Once the Dust Settles Flowers Bloom” on Friday, Sept. 29, in partnership with McCarter Theatre Center and Seuls en Scène, Princeton French Theater Festival.
The piece sheds light on refugees of Burkina Faso and the Sahel region, who were displaced after fleeing from jihadists. Seven dancers and five musicians from Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Benin, Morocco, and France will be performing.
On Saturday, Sept. 30, McCarter Theatre Center will present a concert highlighting Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara, wielding her electric guitar to write songs that blend Wassoulou folk music, spiritually centered Afropop, and desert blues. Singing mostly in Bambara, the national language of Mali, Diawara sings about migration, African identity, motherhood, and the struggle of African women.
A veteran of the screen and stage, she debuted as an actress in the ‘90s, appearing in films such as Cheick Oumar Sissoko’s La Genèse and the Oscar-nominated Timbuktu. Since her 2011 debut LP Fatou, she’s collaborated with the likes of Herbie Hancock, Bobby Womack, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz), who co-produced her latest album “London Ko”. In 2019 she became the first Malian artist to perform at the Grammys, where she was nominated for “Best World Music Album” for her record “Fenfo”.
The final event of the festival is on Sunday, Oct. 1. Titled “Djandjoba” or “The Big Gathering” it transports listeners spiritually to West Africa through the calming sound of the kora, an ancient 21-string African harp, with a duet performed by Wassa Kouyate from Mali and Flatie Dembele from Burkina Faso. The program will also highlight contemporary African music played by Sō Percussion, Dafra Kura band from Burkina Faso, and the Princeton University Afrobeats Ensemble.
McCarter and the Department of Music at Princeton will partner for a second year after the Jazz Vocal Collective featuring Camille Thurman last February.
For more information and to book tickets, visit www.mccarter.org
