The music of Senegalese kora virtuoso Seckou Keita has been transcribed for Western instruments for the first time in a groundbreaking new project from UK arts organisation Opera North together with musician and composer Alex Wilson.

Having been accumulated over a centuries-old oral tradition passed on through hereditary griots, the music will now be published over eight books of sheet music – a long-held ambition for Keita, who was seeking ways to preserve his tradition for the next generation:

"I’ve been dreaming of doing this for a long time, of allowing them to get their hands on my music, without needing a kora, or being in a griot family or whatever. Just open the book, read it, play it. I realised that if did that with my music, it would travel more. It would live longer than I will live."

The world premier of the transcriptions will be performed by Sinfonia Cymru musicians Abel Selaocoe (cello) and Helen Wilson (flute), award-winning jazz pianist Zoe Rahman, and Paul Moylan (double bass), in a twilight concert at the Howard Assembly Room at Opera North, Leeds, on January 15 2019.

For more information and for tickets, visit the Opera North website here.