Sidiki Dembélé

Sidiki Dembélé hails from an ancient line of Malian Griot musicians, diplomats and oral historians, raised in the cultural traditions of his ancestors. He is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, beginning his professional career at the age of fourteen. Dembélé teaches at masterclass level internationally. Since appearing and composing for Justin Macgregor's Mugabeland! (2012, Lowry Theatre), and working as musical director for Ballet Nimba (2010-2015), he joined the RSC as a player musician (Hamlet 2016 and 2018), and was named 21st century drummers ambassador in 2020.

His credits include numerous appearances with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Welsh National Orchestra and recently with the Ulster National Orchestra. An international tour with the Manchester Collective culminated in a 2021 BBC Proms appearance, bringing together the music and traditions of two worlds and spaces in time. In 2022 Sidiki was both composer and Musical Director for an acclaimed production of Giles Terera's harrowing The Meaning of Zong, which toured the UK for several months. From February to June 2023, he performed with both the Royal Shakespeare Company in a new production of Hamnet, and a second run of The Meaning of Zong at the Barbican Theatre in London. At the close of the year he was featured in a CBeebies television series, with the BBC Philharmonic, A Musical Storyland.

In 2024, Sidiki has taken his own tour around the UK and Europe, and is recently returned from North America, where he toured with The Manchester Collective. In February 2024, he worked with the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, arranging music for a new piece of South African choreography. In the same twelve months Sidiki has undertaken two further tours, around the UK, Europe and the USA, as well as a much heralded appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival. Plans for 2025 include an antipodean tour, with the Australian Symphony Orchestra, a tour with his longstanding associate, Abel Selaocoe, to include several concerts in mainland Europe, a second invitation to perform at the EIF in August, and of course his annual trips to Ivory Coast, offering students an immersive experience of culture, music and spiritual tradition.