Constantinople, Kiya Tabassian & Ablaye Cissoko — Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 2021

This full concert was recorded on 2 October 2021 at the Salle Pierre-Bourgie of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, as part of the twentieth season of the ensemble Constantinople. Titled “TRAVERSÉES – Pèlerinages mandingues”, the programme sets Persian music in dialogue with the griot tradition of West Africa. On stage, Kiya Tabassian, Constantinople’s artistic director, plays the setar and sings alongside Ablaye Cissoko, a Senegalese griot from Saint-Louis on kora and vocals, and percussionist Patrick Graham. The fruit of a collaboration begun several years earlier and documented on the album “Traversées”, this repertoire blends original compositions with reworkings of the old Mandinka and Persian traditions. The meeting of the Iranian setar and the West African kora, supported by percussion, traces a musical space in which traditions answer one another rather than simply coexist. Presented in a museum setting suited to attentive listening, this live performance illustrates the approach of Constantinople, a Montreal ensemble recognised for its work on world music and intercultural dialogue. The detailed list of movements performed during this recording is not reliably documented.