LENFEST SERIES: Mamadou Diabaté & Company

35TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Mamadou Diabaté & Percussion Mania
Thursday, March 4, 2027 at 7:30 p.m.
Keller Theatre/Lenfest Center

Tickets are required. General Public: $35 ; Senior: $32; W&L Faculty & Staff: $29; W&L Student: FREE with ID; Student: $8

The master of the talking BALAFON! An explosion of energy on stage!

Mamadou Diabaté is an award-winning balafon master and composer born in Burkina Faso. His formation "Percussion Mania" is worldwide and the only one with two Balafons as lead instruments. Their music is a journey deep into the heritage of West Africa on the highest musical level of arrangements.

Virtuosic balafon music supported by powerful Africa rhythms and refined by African chants. A complete scene, in which the body can't sit still anymore. This music translates the Sambla language into sounds. Musicians who do not speak this language
can't play it.

Characteristic of Mamadou Diabaté & Percussion Mania is its unique arrangement with two balafons before the stage as lead instruments. That makes the group unique in the world and different from all other West African bands. The musical dialogues and spectacular balafons between the brothers Mamadou and Seydou are one of the highlights of the performance.

The Burkina Faso-born Mamadou Diabaté is an award-winning balafon master and composer. He comes from a traditional 'Griot' family of musicians and storytellers of the Sambla people in Burkina Faso (West Africa). He brings the sun of West Africa and the color of a market place to the Keller stage.

The master of the Balafon, Mamadou Diabaté lives and works in Vienna. He composes, sings and plays the balafon as well as various percussion instruments.

Performance is supported in part by the Class of ’64 and World Music.

Ticket Information

Showtimes: Thursday, March 4, 2027 at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Keller Theatre, Lenfest Hall

General Public: $28 ; Senior: $25; W&L Faculty & Staff: $20; W&L Student: FREE with ID Student: $8