Lamine Touré is Director of Rambax, MIT’s Senegalese Drum Ensemble. He comes from a long line of griots, a caste of musicians and oral historians among the Wolof people of Senegal. Born into a prominent family of sabar drummers, Lamine has been drumming and dancing since the age of four. One of Senegal’s leading percussionists. Touré launched his career in musique (Senegalese popular music) with Mapenda Seck in 1995, followed by a fruitful career from 1997-2001 with Nder et le Setsima Group. As Nder’s percussionist, Touré toured extensively within Senegal and throughout Europe and North America, with performances at Bercy (Paris), the Barbican Center (London), the Festival International de Jazz (Montréal) and Central Park Summerstage (New York). Touré is also the founder and leader of Group Saloum, a Boston-based Afropop band that fuses Senegalese mbalax with elements of jazz, funk, reggae and Afrobeat.
Since 2001, Touré has taught Senegalese drumming at MIT. Touré also organizes cultural immersion programs for MIT students in Senegal. In May 2005, Touré co-wrote a pioneering composition with Evan Ziporyn entitled Sabar Gong for sabar drums and Balinese gamelan, premiered at the Inauguration of Pres. Hockfield. In 2010, Touré’s excellence in teaching earned him a SHASS Levitan Teaching Prize. Touré has also taught and performed at Boston College, Suffolk University, Boston University, Harvard University, and many K-12 schools throughout New England.