Malian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rokia Traoré will be next year’s guest director of the huge multi-arts celebration that is Brighton Festival. From theatre with Toni Morrison and Peter Sellars to musical collaborations with Damon Albarn and the Kronos Quartet, Rokia is well known for the variety and range of her work and we’re excited about what she’s going to bring to the programme.
“Exchanging ideas about which artists will be performing and why is an interesting experience for me. It is an opportunity to take the time to look at and to think about other artists’ work. These are circumstances you cannot usually create when you are working as an artist, but programming a festival is another experience – you do it from a different angle,” said Rokia.
If you’re not familiar with the name, here’s why she’s well worth getting to know before next year. She’s known for her unique sound and liberating style, which has seen her dubbed one of Africa’s most inventive musicians. And, although her work is rooted in the Malian musical tradition, it explores many other cultures, too. This may well be thanks to her nomadic upbringing (her father was a diplomat, so they travelled a lot), which meant she was exposed to a wide variety of musical influences, from Ella Fitzgerald to Wagner, Serge Gainsbourg and the Rolling Stones.
She was also a protégé of legendary guitarist Ali Farka Touré, breaking through in 1997 when Radio France Internationale hailed her as the “African Revelation”. And, in 2009, online music magazine Pitchfork called her “one of the world’s great synthesisers, combining the rhythms and traditions of diverse cultures from Africa and Europe into a complex sound that only she could create”. In short, we reckon you’ll love what you hear.
She’ll be premiering (in the UK) her theatrical and musical project, Dream Mandé Djata – a musical monologue structured around the griot tradition of oral history storytelling – at the festival next year. And she’ll be including some of her favourite Malian artists and musicians in what’s already looking to be a belter of a programme.
We completely agree with her when she says that festivals like Brighton Festival can bring their audiences more knowledge about the rest of the world. “It is a way to travel without leaving Brighton and to learn something that you wouldn’t be able to by yourself,” she said.
The 2019 festival edition will also bring us the world premiere of Sheila Hill’s new choral work on motherhood and childhood, Eye to Eye, which features an intergenerational chorus of women and children, and True Copy, a new commission from theatre company BERLIN that’s based on the story of legendary Dutch painter and art forger Geert Jan Jansen. Plus, there’ll be more children’s and young people’s activities next year, with new partnerships and events to take part in in the run-up to the main event. We can’t wait!
Brighton Festival 2019 runs from 4th – 26th May. Full programme details will be published on13th February 2019.
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