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Derek Gripper Takes Guitar In A New Direction

WUNC News | By Anita Rao,
Frank Stasio
Published November 16, 2016 at 12:08 PM EST
South African guitarist Derek Gripper is world-renowned for bringing West African kora music to the guitar.
Coutesy of Derek Gripper
South African guitarist Derek Gripper is world-renowned for bringing West African kora music to the guitar.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Derek Gripper, a composer musician and teacher, about his musical career.

South African musician Derek Gripper has been playing classical music since he was 6-years-old. But after years of studying in Cape Town, he felt uninspired by the classical guitar repertoire available to him, so he set off on a journey to discover musical inspiration from around the world. He traveled first to South India, and then explored Brazilian music before he happened upon the instrument that changed the direction of his career: the kora.

The kora is a 21-string harp from West Africa, but Gripper found a way to adapt its music to his classical guitar. Gripper has since collaborated with kora master Toumani Diabate and a number of other famous African composers and performers. Host Frank Stasio talks with Derek Gripper, a composer musician and teacher, about his musical career. ​

Watch Derek Gripper performkoramusic on the guitar:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSIGLpK9aQI

Copyright 2016 North Carolina Public Radio
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio