Program Notes:

Baaba Maal


Senegalese master musician Baaba Maal, also known as The Nightingale because of his clear, high-pitched voice, maintains a rigorous globe-trotting schedule, appearing at such prestigious events as the BBC Proms Concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall, the Glastonbury Festival and the Africa Remix festival at London's Royal Festival Hall, and the South Africa Freedom Mandela Concert in London's Trafalgar Square. He has headlined at the Hollywood Bowl, and performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert for Dr. Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmental campaigner who won the 2004 Peace Prize.

Baaba Maal has released numerous CDs during his career, including the Grammy-nominated Missing You. His latest disc, Television, released in 2009, is a multi-lingual album with subtle blending of electronic dance elements with timeless traditions of West African music. In another field entirely, Baaba Maal created the soundtrack for the Playstation and X-Box game, Far Cry 2, and also worked with Hans Zimmer on the Oscar-winning Ridley Scott movie, Black Hawk Down.

Baaba Maal's mission in West Africa extends beyond his music. He is committed to the concerns of families, young people, and the future of the continent, as is reflected in his role as Youth Emissary for the United Nations Development Programme. His concern for uplifting the African continent has long driven Baaba Maal. To this end, in 2003, he played the Nelson Mandela 46664 Concert in Cape Town in South Africa; in 2007 he appeared at the African Union heads of state summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and he also performed at the Live Earth Concert in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Being a citizen of the developing world who has carved out a place for himself in the first world, Baaba Maal can speak and sing to and for Africa with unprecedented authority.

This is Baaba Maal's first performance at The Royal Conservatory.