AMP Concerts offers innovative and inspiring arts programming throughout New Mexico. A portion of all AMP ticket sales goes to fund free community concerts, workshops, school programs & artist residencies.
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Kalos

January 15th

Kalos

January 15th

Kalos

January 16th

Kalos

January 16th

3 On A Match Kabarett

January 24th

Jesse Cook

February 2nd

Jesse Cook

February 3rd

The Wildwoods

February 4th

The Wildwoods

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Tinsley Ellis

February 17th

The Ocean Blue

February 21st

Kathleen Edwards

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Kathleen Edwards

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Albert Castiglia

February 25th

Albert Castiglia

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Altan

March 12th

Ronnie Baker Brooks

March 13th

Ronnie Baker Brooks

March 14th

Lúnasa

March 18th

Goodnight, Texas

March 19th

Goodnight, Texas

March 20th

K.Flay

March 25th

David Wilcox

March 27th

David Wilcox

March 28th

Yagody

March 29th

Yagody

March 30th

John Splithoff

March 30th

Derek Gripper

at FUSION | 708
708 1st St. NW
Albuquerque NM 87102
Other Events at Fusion | 708

Time: 7:30pm     Day: Saturday     Doors: 6:30pm     Ages: All Ages     Price: $25
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Tickets cost $25 (plus a $2 service charge). They are also available by phone through Hold My Ticket at 505-886-1251.

Derek Gripper is a Cape Town based composer, arranger and virtuoso guitarist known for his groundbreaking technique for evoking the West African kora on solo guitar. His work creates an unprecedented meeting point between written and oral traditions, re-writing the language of African and Classical Guitar. 

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: Derek performed with Williams in London's Shakespeare's Globe and King's Place, and with Diabaté and his Symmetric Orchestra at the Acoustik Festival Bamako, Mali. His 2016 Carnegie Hall debut paired him with Mali's Trio da Kali, and the UK's Songlines honoured him with best album in Africa and the Middle East for his 2016 album Libraries on Fire.

Since these two recordings put kora/guitar on the map, his recent recordings A Year of Swimming (2020), Billy Goes to Durban, (2021) and Sleep Songs for My Daughter (2022) have incorporated elements of his kora explorations in original compositions and improvisations, captured on tape in the field and in studio. 

On-stage Derek 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. 


AMP Concerts