Vancouver Folk Music Festival

July 14 to 16, 2023

Derek Gripper | South Africa

In this world of many guitarists and musicians, Cape Town guitarist Derek Gripper stands apart. He is the only guitarist in the world to have mastered the technique of the West African 21 string harp, the kora, on a classical guitar.

Alone a big achievement, but Derek’s musical influences and loves extend beyond the realm of translation into another vision: to create a language of improvisation rooted in the philosophy of African music, drawing on music from beyond Africa, a global music reflecting the global nature of music in the twenty-first century.

When Gripper released One Night on Earth, his 2012 album of kora translations, classical guitar legend John Williams said he thought it was “absolutely impossible until I heard Derek Gripper do it,” while kora maestro Toumani Diabaté asked for confirmation that it was indeed just one person playing. Both invited Derek to collaborate with them.

To listen to a Derek Gripper concert is to witness something which has never been done on the guitar before: a complex and multi layered music nestled in the gentle body of a single acoustic guitar. On-stage he is both informative scholar and irreverent comedian, effortlessly shifting between conversation and music, reminding us that the art of the griot, even if only evoked by a non-griot, is the art of storytelling as much as it is the art of music-making.