The Vale is excited to welcome Suntou Susso, a multi-instrumentalist: Kora player, percussionist, singer and composer from The Gambia to our stage this May. Born a Griot in a 700-year-old tradition, the Kora – harp-lute with 22 strings – is unique to the Griots of the Mandinka people. Griots have a unique societal role as oral historians, transmitting and preserving a people’s culture through the generations in song, music and poetry.