The Kora of yesterday and today: meeting with Simon Winsé

Meeting between Simon Winsé, musician, and Madeleine Leclair, curator in charge of the ethnomusicological collections. Music room. Tuesday 5 April at 5pm.

As part of his visit to Geneva for a fortnight of meetings and exchanges around the book and play "Traces, discourses aux nations africaine" organised by the Licra Genève, the MEG has the honour of receiving Simon Winsé, musician, composer and singer, on 5 April 2022. Simon Winsé's favourite musical instrument is the Kora, a traditional West African musical instrument. Through this instrument, the notion of the circulation of traditional music and the questions of cultural appropriation of music will be addressed.

Both a space for discussion and listening, this meeting will also aim to discuss the relationship of the Burkinabe musician with the traditional repertoire of the griots.

This meeting will take place in French and will be subject to availability.

Live streaming on MEG's YouTube and Facebook channels, and here.

Speakers:

Simon Winsé: multi-instrumentalist musician (kora, n'goni, mouth bow, Peul flute), composer and singer. His musical universe is nourished by jazz fusion, blues, rock and the traditional music of the San country in the north-west of Burkina Faso, where he is originally from. It was in his native village that Simon Winsé learned to play the mouthbow as a child. Simon Winsé is steeped in the traditional Samo culture, and ensures its survival. Aware of the richness of his ethnic group's musical heritage, Simon is determined to promote it and to rehabilitate the mouthbow. Resolutely turned towards interculturality and modernity, Simon reveals his poetic writing with texts that sound like philosophical tales. By resurrecting the heritage of the Samo culture with nobility, Simon demonstrates that traditional African instruments and contemporary music are not mutually exclusive. https://simonwinse.blogspot.com/p/bio.html

Madeleine Leclair: curator in charge of the Ethnomusicology Department of the MEG.

This day is organised by the MEG in co-production with the Licra-Geneva and in partnership with the Payot bookshop.

These events are supported by the Service de lutte contre le racisme, the Republic and Canton of Geneva (Cantonal Integration Programme), the City of Geneva (Department of Finance, Environment and Housing; Department of Social Cohesion; Agenda 21 Service), the Leenaards Foundation, Fonds culturel Sud. In co-production with the University of Geneva and in partnership with La librairie Payot.