Moussa Dembele comes from a traditional Bwa Bwa Griot storytellers’ family of musicians and craftsmen from Burkina Faso and Mali who have been making and playing musical instruments for generations. His father and various family members trained him from a young age. He has gone on to become a professional musician and teacher as well as a master craftsman of West African instruments all of which he has done for the last 25 years. In addition to the balafon, he plays the kora, ngoni, and percussion.
Dembele has toured extensively throughout Africa, Europe and Israel as a freelance multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. He spent many years based in Ghana where he played balafon for the renowned Pan-African Orchestra. Now based in London and leading his band Koroleko, Moussa has performed as a soloist at Wigmore Hall for the African Concert Series, for Greenbelt Festival, Lion’s Den Opening Show – Boomtown and Shropshire Music Trust, as well as played with bands including Native Sun and Minyanta. Additionally, from 2019 to 2020 Moussa recorded on tracks with Afriquoi and did a soundtrack with James William Blades, for the film Black is King by Beyonce.