Famoudou Konaté

Who is Famoudou Konaté?

Famoudou Konaté is a Malinké master drummer from Guinea. Famoudou Konaté is a world-renowned virtuoso of the djembe drum and its orchestra. One of only a handful of initiated masters of the Malinké drumming tradition, Famoudou is universally respected as one of the world’s premiere djembe master drummers. He has dedicated his life to performing and preserving the music of his people, helping to elevate the djembe orchestra from its traditional roots to worldwide popularity.

Famoudou was born in 1940 near Sangbaralla, a village in the Hamana region of Upper Guinea, the Malinké heartland and the birthplace of the dundunba family of rhythms. A percussive prodigy, he was drumming in community festivals at the age of eight and was soon in demand as a djembefola across the region. From 1959 to 1985, Famoudou was the lead djembe soloist for Les Ballets Africains de la République de Guinée, touring the world and performing with astounding virtuosity. During this time, Famoudou himself created many of the musical arrangements now common in West African performance groups worldwide.

In 1986, Konaté began his independent teaching career in Europe, teaching and performing with the Famoudou Konaté Ensemble, formed and managed by the legendary drumming duo from Berlin, "Djembe Tubabu". In the year 2000, Konaté was invited to the United States for the first time as an independent artist by the Chicago Djembe Project. Today, Konaté teaches and performs annually throughout Europe, Japan, Israel, North America and West Africa, instilling a generation of non-African drummers with an extraordinary level of training. In 1996, he received an honorary professorship in Didactics of African Musical Practice from the University of the Arts Berlin. He has produced eight CDs, including his most recent release, Hamana Namun.