Derek Gripper is creating Music
Championing the works of Great African Composers
55
$408
Milestone Goals
Please help me to take this music further.
I will do these things anyway, regardless of whether or not this campaign works. But support from you would make things happen more smoothly, and allow me to turn the content creation aspect of my work into a real job. Imagine. So the hours and hours of work that prepare what I present on stage or in the studio or in workshops become paid work. This means I can do much more preparation work and enlarge the scope of what I do exponentially. I can also pay the people I collaborate with.
About
“Five stars…Gripper has brilliantly transferred [the kora] repertoire onto a regular six string guitar. He sees [Toumani] Diabaté as the Segovia, or indeed John Williams, of the kora, championing it as a solo instrument. And Gripper brilliantly takes it back to the guitar. He’s opening a whole new repertoire of classical guitar music…bringing African guitar into the classical mainstream.” [Simon Broughton - Evening Standard]
So reads the Evening Standard’s review of Derek Gripper’s two sold out concerts at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre with legendary classical guitarist John Williams, just a little over a year after the release of his 2012 recording “One Night on Earth: Music from the Strings of Mali.” In this album Derek arranged and performed on classical guitar the compositions of three of Mali’s greatest instrumental virtuosos: Toumani Diabaté, Ali Farka Touré and Ballaké Sissoke; most of which were originally composed for and played on the kora, a 21 string African harp-lute, one of Africa’s most beautiful and complex instruments. UK’s top world music publication Songlines Magazine called the album ”a staggering achievement,” selecting the recording as a Top of the World album in March 2013.
Derek’s output extends beyond Africa to include original compositions, interpretations of the works of Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti, collaborations with classical Indian tabla, innovation of South African folk sounds, and arrangements of J.S.Bach’s solo violin works. Classical Guitar Magazine called his 2011 recording of original compositions set alongside the works of Gismonti “an excellent album…of hypnotic beauty” whilst Guitar International says of the same album that his world class ability “is able to transcend the instrument itself.”
“Gripper has cracked it…his playing has a depthless beauty, which does full justice to the complexity of Toumani’s compositions. To do so without any hint of the music being dumbed down is a staggering achievement on solo guitar.” [Nigel Williamson, Songlines Magazine]
“More than a labour of love, Gripper has brought a new purity to the dream-like improvisatory nature of these compositions. My recording of the year, so far!” [Tim Panting, Classical Guitar Magazine]
”The result is astounding, not just for its technical brilliance, but its musicality. Gripper executes these pieces with the precision and attention to detail one might expect from a great classical musician…It’s hard to imagine a more impressive and passionate rendering of Malian music on classical guitar.” [Banning Eyre, Afropop Worldwide]
“A true synthesis and a great album.” [Ian Kearey, fRoots]
So reads the Evening Standard’s review of Derek Gripper’s two sold out concerts at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre with legendary classical guitarist John Williams, just a little over a year after the release of his 2012 recording “One Night on Earth: Music from the Strings of Mali.” In this album Derek arranged and performed on classical guitar the compositions of three of Mali’s greatest instrumental virtuosos: Toumani Diabaté, Ali Farka Touré and Ballaké Sissoke; most of which were originally composed for and played on the kora, a 21 string African harp-lute, one of Africa’s most beautiful and complex instruments. UK’s top world music publication Songlines Magazine called the album ”a staggering achievement,” selecting the recording as a Top of the World album in March 2013.
Derek’s output extends beyond Africa to include original compositions, interpretations of the works of Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti, collaborations with classical Indian tabla, innovation of South African folk sounds, and arrangements of J.S.Bach’s solo violin works. Classical Guitar Magazine called his 2011 recording of original compositions set alongside the works of Gismonti “an excellent album…of hypnotic beauty” whilst Guitar International says of the same album that his world class ability “is able to transcend the instrument itself.”
“Gripper has cracked it…his playing has a depthless beauty, which does full justice to the complexity of Toumani’s compositions. To do so without any hint of the music being dumbed down is a staggering achievement on solo guitar.” [Nigel Williamson, Songlines Magazine]
“More than a labour of love, Gripper has brought a new purity to the dream-like improvisatory nature of these compositions. My recording of the year, so far!” [Tim Panting, Classical Guitar Magazine]
”The result is astounding, not just for its technical brilliance, but its musicality. Gripper executes these pieces with the precision and attention to detail one might expect from a great classical musician…It’s hard to imagine a more impressive and passionate rendering of Malian music on classical guitar.” [Banning Eyre, Afropop Worldwide]
“A true synthesis and a great album.” [Ian Kearey, fRoots]
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
Top PatronsSee all 55
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I'm a guitarist based in Cape Town, South Africa. I have been translating the music of the kora (a 21 string harp from West Africa) onto solo classical guitar. The album I made was Top of the World for Songlines Magazine and has resulted in global tours and offers to collaborate or arrange for some of music's greats (John Williams, Toumani Diabate, Debashish Battacharya, Kronos Quartet). My aim is to see great classical musicians the world over recognising the composers of Africa, especially those that come from oral traditions and whose music has not been available to classical musicians who can only work from written scores.
Patreon is a site somewhat like Kickstarter - a crowd funding platform. The difference is that Patreon focuses on multiple small projects rather than one big project. Patrons support with a monthly amount. You can pledge for any length of time and stop or modify your pledge at any time. In return you and I keep up a consistent dialogue - either in the form of teaching and musical scores (if you're a guitarist or string player or pianist or string quartet or or or) or in the form of recordings, news and the joy of seeing music you love flourish.
This campaign has a simple goal. To enable me to continue researching, transcribing, translating and learning the music of Great African Composers, and to make it possible for me to create beautiful ways to share this music: printed publications of scores and educational material, vinyl, video, online tools for learning, etc.
Also the pledge amounts will help to pay the musicians, arrangers, designers, sound engineers and film makers I work with.
As you probably know my kora transcriptions first made their way onto an album called One Night on Earth which has created amazing opportunities for me, including working with John Williams and Toumani Diabate, touring in fabulous places and teaching in places like Norway, Sweden, Ireland, America, South Africa and Zanzibar, sharing stages with some of the world's most incredible musicians and getting reviews by some of the world's top music publications. Not to mention making friends and sharing ideas with some of my all-time biggest inspirations.
In the last few months I have received a few paid commissions to create new works for guitar orchestra, guitar duet, string quartet and guitar quartet. These commissions, as well as funding from Learn Africa, gave me the opportunity to spend more time exploring new pieces, creating new solo arrangements and finding new vehicles for the compositions of some of Africa's Great Composers. In fact these commissions allowed me to put in full days of work on this music and actually feel that I was allowed to do it!
For example, a recent breakthrough has been finding a way to translate the kora duets of Toumani DIabate and his son Sidiki (two incomparable virtuosos) onto one guitar. You will hear this on the next album and at the next live performance. Promise!
I then used this score as the basis for:
So just one incredible recorded performance by two of Africa's greatest instrumentalists, and a few days listening and writing down the music note for note, and then working with wonderful arrangers to create new versions, has enable this composition to be heard in many contexts outside of the possibilities of the original.
I want to do more of this kind of work!
So far the opportunities to air these projects have been diverse and I receive emails every day asking for various scores or arrangements of scores. Over 1000 people have downloaded my scores over the past two years. I also teach quite a number of people around the world how to play this music - either in workshops or online.
But I have yet to find a way to fund the work that goes into creating these scores. So this Patreon campaign is my request for a community of people interested in this work to get behind it and make it possible on a larger scale.
This will mean more transcriptions for solo guitar, a new solo album (finally!!!), string quartet versions of kora compositions, guitar duets...and all in scores that are made available to everyone who wants to play them - with the royalties and score fees going back to the original composers.
I also want to complete the Great African Composers Database which is an online educational platform that will make it possible for anyone with a guitar to use the music of Africa as a starting point to play guitar, using the unique teaching methods I have created based on the methodology of Maria Montessori. But many many hours of transcribing, notating, typing and recomposing are required - and I need to pay for the services of a good programmer to develop the platform exactly as it needs to be.
So much to do.
So I humbly invite you to join me in this venture. I hope in return I can find ways to enhance your music listening, playing and learning experiences.
Patreon is a site somewhat like Kickstarter - a crowd funding platform. The difference is that Patreon focuses on multiple small projects rather than one big project. Patrons support with a monthly amount. You can pledge for any length of time and stop or modify your pledge at any time. In return you and I keep up a consistent dialogue - either in the form of teaching and musical scores (if you're a guitarist or string player or pianist or string quartet or or or) or in the form of recordings, news and the joy of seeing music you love flourish.
This campaign has a simple goal. To enable me to continue researching, transcribing, translating and learning the music of Great African Composers, and to make it possible for me to create beautiful ways to share this music: printed publications of scores and educational material, vinyl, video, online tools for learning, etc.
Also the pledge amounts will help to pay the musicians, arrangers, designers, sound engineers and film makers I work with.
As you probably know my kora transcriptions first made their way onto an album called One Night on Earth which has created amazing opportunities for me, including working with John Williams and Toumani Diabate, touring in fabulous places and teaching in places like Norway, Sweden, Ireland, America, South Africa and Zanzibar, sharing stages with some of the world's most incredible musicians and getting reviews by some of the world's top music publications. Not to mention making friends and sharing ideas with some of my all-time biggest inspirations.
In the last few months I have received a few paid commissions to create new works for guitar orchestra, guitar duet, string quartet and guitar quartet. These commissions, as well as funding from Learn Africa, gave me the opportunity to spend more time exploring new pieces, creating new solo arrangements and finding new vehicles for the compositions of some of Africa's Great Composers. In fact these commissions allowed me to put in full days of work on this music and actually feel that I was allowed to do it!
For example, a recent breakthrough has been finding a way to translate the kora duets of Toumani DIabate and his son Sidiki (two incomparable virtuosos) onto one guitar. You will hear this on the next album and at the next live performance. Promise!
I then used this score as the basis for:
- a String Quartet (which has been sent, on request, to the Kronos Quartet)
- a Guitar Orchestra (for Copenhagen Guitar Festival)
- a Guitar Duet (to be performed and recorded with John Williams and Tunde Jegede in June)
So just one incredible recorded performance by two of Africa's greatest instrumentalists, and a few days listening and writing down the music note for note, and then working with wonderful arrangers to create new versions, has enable this composition to be heard in many contexts outside of the possibilities of the original.
I want to do more of this kind of work!
So far the opportunities to air these projects have been diverse and I receive emails every day asking for various scores or arrangements of scores. Over 1000 people have downloaded my scores over the past two years. I also teach quite a number of people around the world how to play this music - either in workshops or online.
But I have yet to find a way to fund the work that goes into creating these scores. So this Patreon campaign is my request for a community of people interested in this work to get behind it and make it possible on a larger scale.
This will mean more transcriptions for solo guitar, a new solo album (finally!!!), string quartet versions of kora compositions, guitar duets...and all in scores that are made available to everyone who wants to play them - with the royalties and score fees going back to the original composers.
I also want to complete the Great African Composers Database which is an online educational platform that will make it possible for anyone with a guitar to use the music of Africa as a starting point to play guitar, using the unique teaching methods I have created based on the methodology of Maria Montessori. But many many hours of transcribing, notating, typing and recomposing are required - and I need to pay for the services of a good programmer to develop the platform exactly as it needs to be.
So much to do.
So I humbly invite you to join me in this venture. I hope in return I can find ways to enhance your music listening, playing and learning experiences.