The Aga Khan Music Initiative (AKMI) is launching a new partnership with the National Museum of Mali, aiming to re-establish the “Jeudis Musicaux”, a weekly concert programme at the National Museum, located in the National Park of Mali.

AKMI and the National Museum will also organise a series of music education workshops and master classes to accompany the Jeudis Musicaux concerts. Music education workshops will seek to strengthen and expose Malian musical traditions that need support while bringing Malian musicians in contact with other musical traditions within the Music Initiative’s wide orbit.

Since its creation in 2005, the Jeudis Musicaux have become an essential event for young people from the surrounding neighbourhoods. Between 300 and 500 people attend the different concerts each week. By re-establishing the programme, the Aga Khan Music Initiative aims to create a dynamic and creative space for the exhibition of Malian culture within the National Museum and the Mali National Park.

Fairouz Nishanova, Director of the Aga Khan Music Initiative, praised the new partnership. “We are delighted to be collaborating with the National Museum of Mali to present outstanding musicians from Bamako and beyond,” she said. “In addition to providing a highly visible platform for local musicians rooted in Mali’s rich musical heritage, Jeudis Musicaux will serve as a catalyst for musical innovation and music education. AKMI is looking forward to working with the museum to identify and nourish young talent, and to developing new international collaborations that feature musicians from Mali.”

The Aga Khan Music Initiative and the National Museum will also work on co-presenting a larger scale quarterly music event, featuring artists from AKMI’s roster, which will aim to re-establish historic links among artistic communities in Africa and Asia. AKMI’s newly developed international performance programmes featuring artists from Mali will also be presented.

AKMI’s broader aim – a part of its mandate – is to support traditional and tradition-inspired contemporary music where it may be at risk. Launched by His Highness the Aga Khan to support talented musicians and music educators working to preserve, transmit, and further develop their musical heritage in contemporary forms, the Music Initiative began its work in Central Asia, and subsequently expanded its cultural development activities to include artistic communities and audiences in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and West Africa. The Initiative designs and implements a country-specific set of activities for each country into which it invests, and works to promote revitalisation of cultural heritage both as a source of livelihood for musicians and as a means to strengthen pluralism in nations where it is challenged by social, political, and economic constraints.

The Music Initiative’s mission of assuring the transmission of musical traditions is integrally connected to the broader cultural revitalisation and educational mission of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and through the Trust, to the social and economic development mission of the Aga Khan Development Network. Among other projects, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture rehabilitated and expanded the National Park of Mali, a space of 103 hectares within a larger protected forest reserve of 2,100 hectares that forms a significant greenbelt in the city of Bamako, one of the fastest growing cities in Africa.

[Aga Khan Music Initiative]