Museum & Center Adds Cheick Hamala Diabate to African Roots of Appalachian Music Concert

The Ralph Stanley Museum & Traditional Mountain Music Center is pleased to announce the addition of Cheick Hamala Diabate to the African Roots of Appalachian Music concert on Saturday, September 8th at 7pm in Clintwood's Jettie Baker Center. Mike Seeger and Carpetbag Theatre will also perform Saturday evening in this opening event of the new Roots of Appalachian Music series presented by the Museum & Center and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Reserve your tickets early for this rare opportunity to explore the history of mountain music with some of the region's best performers and scholars!

Cheick Hamala Diabaté is recognized as one of the world's masters of the ngoni, a Malian traditional instrument, and a West African historian in the Griot tradition. A sought after performer, lecturer, storyteller, and choreographer throughout Africa, Europe, Asia, and Canada, Cheick Hamala began touring in the U.S. in 1995. His performances have been featured at such notable venues as The Smithsonian Institute and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

A steward of the 800 year-old tradition of the Griot, the storytellers of West Africa, Cheick Hamala shares the oral history, music, and song of his culture as it was passed on to him from birth by parent to child. At an early age, Cheick Hamala easily mastered the ngoni, a stringed lute and ancestor to the banjo. He learned to play the guitar from his uncle and now plays banjo and several other instruments; but his renown remains with the historical ngoni.

Each month from September to December 2007, the Roots of Appalachian Music Concert Series will explore a different side of Appalachian music's history and development, including events highlighting Africa, the British Isles, Eastern Europe, and the string band tradition in the mountains. This important series also seeks to extend special programming to area schools to promote educational outreach and provide area school systems with opportunities to work with regional scholars and musicians.

For more information about the September 8th performance, or to reserve your tickets, please contact the Ralph Stanley Museum & Traditional Mountain Music Center at (276) 926-8550. If you would like to know more about the event's performers, please visit Mike Seeger's website at http://mikeseeger.info, Carpetbag Theatre's website at http://www.carpetbag.org, and Cheick Hamala Diabate's website at http://www.malimusic.net.

The Roots of Appalachian Music Concert Series is made possible by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities was established in 1974 to develop and support public programs, education, and research in the humanities and to relate the humanities to public issues. The VFH promotes understanding and use of the humanities through public debate, group discussion, and individual inquiry. Principal activities of the Virginia Foundation include an internationally recognized Fellowship Program, the Virginia Folklife Program, the Virginia Center for Media and Culture, a statewide network of Regional Councils, and the Grant Program. The VFH is non-profit and non-partisan and receives support from private gifts, grants and contributions, and from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. For more information, write or call the Foundation's office at 145 Ednam Drive, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903-4629, (434) 924-3296, or visit the VFH online at www.virginiafoundation.org.

The program is presented as a public service. The principal aim of the program is to discuss in an objective and nonpartisan context issues of concern and interest to citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The views and opinions expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the Virginia Foundation, its contributors, or its supporting agencies.