Kabantu

Kabantu is a bold quartet – featuring strings, guitar, vocals and percussion – that creates new marriages of music from around the globe to celebrate the space where different cultures meet. Vocal harmonies from South Africa coalesce with everything from Celtic reels to Brazilian samba and beyond…

‘Kabantu’ means ‘of the people’ – stemming from the South African philosophy of Ubuntu – “I am what I am because of who we all are”. Highlights include performing at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, live sessions for BBC Free Thinking Festival, BBC Radio 3 In Tune, World on 3, a TedX Talk to a sold-out Bridgewater Hall and an array of prestigious festivals and venues across the UK including Cadogan Hall, The Sage Gateshead, St.-Martin’s-in-the-Fields, Orkney Folk Festival, Aldeburgh Music, Celtic Connections, Musicport, Spitalfields Festival and Cambridge Folk Festival.

Kabantu is the winner of the Royal Over-Seas League Competition 2017 £10,000 Mixed Ensemble Prize and in 2018 released their debut album ‘Of the People’ to critical acclaim, produced by Mercury-nominated Gerry Diver and supported by the Hattori Foundation and the PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund for Music Creators.

Lineup

Kate Foster – Violin
Ali McMath – Double bass
Ben Sayah – Guitar
Delia Stevens – Percussion

“Global experimentalism that’s both breathtaking and very refreshing.”
-Songlines