The Queens of Stringed Instruments from Asia, Europe, Africa
Line-Up:
Imran Khan – Sitar & Voc., India
Stefanie Sylla – Viola d’a more & Voc., Germany
Djelifily Sako – Kora & Voc., Mali
stand-by:
Hervé Hartock – Percussion & Sax – France/Martinique
RENU Hossain – Tabla & Percussion – British Bengali
Toumany Fofana Guitar, Perc., Voc. – Guinea Conakri
Unique. A special kind of concert evening. The queens of string instruments from three continents introduce themselves.
Enter the gentle and at the same time powerful sound space that the African Kora & Asian Sitar & European Viola D’Amore create together and let yourself be taken into a time when you feel like you can listen to the world as it comes into being.
The stories with which the instrumentalists lead through the program provide insight into the different historical and cultural circumstances and yet allow the original sameness to be recognized within the other.
This unique line-up is able to allow loving communication to blossom between the instruments and the audience
The musicians:
IMRAN KHAN
composes a surprisingly resonant contemporary sitar style that complements the musical from all parts of the world, despite the centuries-old tradition of the classical Hindustan Music remains true, is clarity of sound, agility of the attack and pitch-precise sound quality his trademark.
He belongs to the famous line of Sikar Gharana (music school), which has given many impulses to Indian classical music. He is the 9th generation of Gharana and started his education in Sitar at the age of 6 with his grandfather Ustad Gulab Khan Sahab and his father, Ustad Niyaz Ahmed Khan Sahab. In addition, Imran has also taken training with his uncles; World-famous sarangi player and singer Ustad Sultan Khan, part of the Beatles group “Dark Horse” by George Harrison and Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Nasir Khan was. Performance in India Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Laos.
Twice he received the 1st Prize of the Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Academy competition and had the honor of singers Ustad Rashid Khan, Shanker Mahadevan, Ghazal Maestro Talat Aziz, Richa Sharma, Madhushree Bhattacharya, Mr. Woodnote, Eva Lazarus. He worked with Bollywood singer Shaan and numerous films.
Imran Khan is also a composer, his album “Khwaja Saheeb” (T-series) has songs with the most famous Indian singers: Rekha, Bhardwaj, Krishna Berua, Parthiv Gohil, Kalpana Patowary and Ali Abbas.
STEFANIE SYLLA
For her, reconnecting and sharing love in sound and music is one of the greatest wonders and gifts of Mother Earth. She began playing the violin at the age of 6 and discovered the guitar and the piano a few years later, and generally liked stringed instruments.
Born in Berlin in 1994, she began writing her first songs at the age of 11. 1995 she studied classical violin at the Hanns Eisler Academy, got the 2nd place at “Jugend musiziert” and won the 1st place “Folk Förderpreis” at Rudolstadt Festival. 2003 she got the 2nd place of the ARD TV show “Germany’s Talents”. In 2006, she completed her vocal studies with Mike Cinnamon (USA) & Carolin Mc Pherson (Ireland) and also studied the multi-instrumentalist Jazz at the “Hoogeschool voor de Kunsten”, Netherlands.
In 2007 she attended the violin masterclass with Dr. L. Subramaniam in Bangalore, India, has been teaching music since then and founded the Chakra knowledge-based holistic voice training “Voice Real”, which she continues to teach in seminars and individual coaching worldwide. In 2009 she opened the Berlin School of Music and Yoga “Tagtigall“, based on human values and a balanced approach to body, mind and soul, which she still leads today. Since 2011 she is a trainer for heartfulness meditation (Raja Yoga) and in 2015 joined as a healing artist the homeopathy training with Annalisa Adami (Italy) and Nathanael Schwartz (USA). From 1999 she published numerous albums (u.a.Blütenlese, Maha Nada, Losho-Route du paradis) books and film music u.a. for “Heartfulness” and “Drachinzeit” (Sil Eger). The triple mother has performed in theaters, festivals and concert halls with up to 80.000 listeners in Europe, India, Sri Lanka, Moldova, Belarus, Romania and Senegal. Currently her violin arrangements, with which she coined the current album of the renowned singer Thione Seck, are heard throughout Senegal, where she is currently building the 1st violin school nationwide.
DJELIFILY SAKO
The ‘Kora Whisperer’ from Mali comes from a musician & griot family, where in the usually the tradition of the Kora (21-string bridge harp) is passed on from father to son.
However, his father died early, so Djelifily Sako became a student of the famous Sidiki Diabate (father of the internationally known Kora player Toumani Diabate). He lived with his master until his death and then went to Bamako for further studies by Toumani Diabate.
During the five years together there he had numerous concerts and television appearances.
Today he lives in Berlin and goes his own musical way. He combines traditional music with
modern influences to jazzy sounds.