Renowned Mali musician Ballaké Sissoko claimed today that US Customs in New York "completely destroyed" his custom-made kora, the West African instrument with which he performs. "The kora is a fragile ...

This is an updated version of a story first published on Nov. 13, 2022. Described as a cross between a harp, a lute, and a guitar, the kora is part of a musical tradition that dates back to the ...

“How come we’ve never heard of this beautiful instrument until now?” This was posted by a first-year college student to my world music course discussion board recently. He voiced what many of his ...

Says Solo Cissokho, the internationally acclaimed Kora player He creates an entirely new world when he takes the center stage and plays his state of the art instrument Kora. He has taken the national ...

When Ballake Sissoko, a renowned kora player from Mali, looked in his case at his Paris home after flying from New York, he found the instrument in pieces. By Maria Cramer A renowned Malian musician ...

Musician Sean Gaskell will give two performances and presentations on the kora, a 21-stringed harp from West Africa, in February in the Inland Empire. The first is 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 1, in the ...

When Kadialy Kouyate travelled to the United Kingdom he intended to be a student, but he ended up being the teacher. The Senegal-born musician teaches at the only university-led kora course in the ...

A renowned Malian musician said when he came back to Paris on Monday from a concert tour in the United States, he opened the case to his kora and found the instrument in pieces. The musician, Ballake ...

Ballaké Sissoko has criticised customs for causing severe damage to his tailor-made West African instrument, saying, “would US customs have dared to dismantle a Stradivarius?” Ballaké Sissoko, ...

The hallowed tradition of kora playing in Sona Jobarteh’s family passed down the male line. One of her teachers dismissed it as “an ethnic thing.” But it has brought her international acclaim. By Aina ...