Sona Jobarteh

A composer and multi-instrumentalist, Sona Jobarteh is also a trailblazer: the first female to become a professional kora player in the centuries-old West African griot tradition. Jobarteh's rising profile as an international artist (including a recent 60 Minutes interview on YouTube) is helping bring African music to audiences around the world...now, including Madison, with this concert hosted by The Sessions at McPike Park. (The Sessions is also bringing Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble to Garver on March 25.)

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courtesy Sona Jobarteh

A close-up of Sona Jobarteh.

Sona Jobarteh

media release: Garver Events Sona Jobarteh, in partnership with Sessions at McPike Park. She creates a fine blend of traditional music, blues and Afropop.

General Admission $25. Doors at 6:30 PM; two sets starting at 7:30 PM.

Sona Jobarteh, a Gambian/British multi-instrumentalist, social activist, and visionary, has officially announced her upcoming Spring 2023 US Tour. Jobarteh, renowned as the world's first female professional Kora virtuoso, will perform with her band in 18 US cities from March 20 - April 30, 2023, promoting her recently released second solo album, Badinyaa Kumoo. Badinyaa Kumoo, Jobarteh's 12-track album, combines the traditional sound of her Gambian heritage with jazz, blues, and R&B/soul. The album features traditional African instruments, including djembes, calabash, and the kora, and includes guest appearances by renowned artists like Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko, and American saxophonist Kirk Whalum.   As a musician and social activist, Jobarteh has been featured in prominent media outlets such as 60 Minutes, BBC News, The New York Times, The Guardian, and NPR. She also recently received an honorary doctorate from the Berklee School of Music.  For Jobarteh, her international fame has represented more than just personal success. As she stated in a New York Times interview, “It makes Africans feel something, to see that someone is being respected to sing in their own language, dress in their own clothes, play their own music.” She added, “That is a message not just for Gambians — it’s for the whole African continent.” US music fans can catch Sona Jobarteh on her third US tour, which starts on March 20th. For more information and the updated tour schedule, visit https://sonajobarteh.com/. Badinyaa Kumoo is available on all music streaming platforms in the US, the UK, Europe, and Africa.

Sona Jobarteh is the only daughter of a painter/writer mother from the UK and Kora master father from The Gambia. As a lifelong musician, Sona earned a scholarship to the prestigious Purcell School of Music  and the Royal College of Music in the UK where she studied the cello, piano and harpsichord as well as composition and scoring. Coming from one of the five principal Griot families in West Africa, a hereditary tradition that dates back over 700 years to the Mali Empire, Jobarteh is the first female to master the kora, a 21-string instrument that combines the qualities of a lute and a harp. Originally introduced to the kora at age 4, Jobarteh officially began studying under her father at age 17, breaking an ancient, male-dominated hereditary tradition that had been exclusively handed down from father to son for the past seven centuries. For the past seven years, Sona has given live performances and speaking engagements around the world. Pre-pandemic, she zoomed 52 performances with 12 sellouts during 2019 and post-pandemic, she had 72 shows in 2022. She has toured the US, including at the Hollywood Bowl in LA, as well as throughout Europe, China, India and Africa, and has performed at the WOMAD Festivals in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Sona has headlined sold out concerts in London at The Barbican, at the Philharmonie in Cologne, Germany, and at Seine Musicale in Paris. In addition, Sona was commissioned to compose the score for the multiple award-winning film, Motherland, in 2010 and was commissioned to write the opening and closing sequence music for the 2022 Hollywood blockbuster, Beast, starring Idris Elba. She also co-wrote a track on LL Cool J’s upcoming album, with QTip.  After founding The Gambia Academy in 2015, Sona has given speeches on educational reform. She has lectured and held residencies at universities and colleges in Africa and across the United States and Europe. Recently, Sona received an honorary doctorate from the Berklee School of Music, joining an elite list of other famous honorees, including Aretha Franklin, Justin Timberlake, Sting, and Herbie Hancock.