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World on 3: Why Music? The Key to Memory

Why Music? The Key to Memory

13/10/2017

BBC Radio 3 - World on 3, Why Music? The Key to Memory

Kathryn Tickell with performances by Alya Al-Sultani, Seckou Keita and Sam Lee.

Kathryn Tickell presents performances by British-Iraqi singer Alya Al-Sultani, Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita and UK folk singer Sam Lee from Wellcome Collection in London.

Kathryn Tickell explores how music is remembered and passed down from generation to generation in three very different traditions from around the World with performances by British-Iraqi singer Alya Al-Sultani, Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita and Mercury Prize nominated UK folk singer and song collector Sam Lee. 
Recorded earlier this evening at the world-renowned Wellcome Collection as part of 'Why Music? The Key to Memory' - a weekend of live events, concerts and discussions exploring music's unique capacity to be remembered. 

Alya Al-Sultani was born in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, and moved to London with her parents following the Iran-Iraq war. Her first musical experiences were Iraqi folk songs sung by her great grandmother and radio broadcasts of Um Kolthum, Abdel-Halim and Fairouz which she listened to with her family whilst growing up in Tottenham. With her ensemble SAWA she puts a fresh take on these Iraqi folk songs drawing on elements of free jazz and post-classical composition.

Seckou Keita comes from a long lineage of Senegalese musical heritage: his father is from the Keita royal line, and his mother was a Cissokho, a clan associated with musicians. He has been a champion of the kora music of the Casamance region of southern Senegal, but he plays styles from throughout the country, embracing the four different traditional kora tunings.

Over the course of the last five years and two albums Sam Lee has tirelessly worked at collecting and sharing traditional music from Britain and Ireland; in particular from the Romany Gypsy and Irish traveller communities. His stunning arrangements of these traditional songs both preserve and push forward the tradition in new and exciting ways.'.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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