1. Sona Jobarteh was born on 1983 and is a Gambian multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer.
21 Facts About Sona Jobarteh
1. 2.
Sona Jobarteh is from one of the five principal kora-playing griot families of West Africa, and is the first female professional kora player to come from a griot family.
3.
Sona Jobarteh is the cousin of the celebrated kora player Toumani Diabate, and is the sister of the diaspora kora player Tunde Jegede.
4.
Sona Jobarteh is the granddaughter of the griot of her line, Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, whose father migrated from Mali to Gambia.
5.
Sona Jobarteh's cousin is the well-known, celebrated kora player Toumani Diabate.
6.
Sona Jobarteh has a son, Sidiki Jobarteh-Codjoe, born in 2010.
7.
Sona Jobarteh has studied the kora since the age of three, at first taught by her brother Tunde Jegede, who is 11 years older, and with whom she traveled several times a year to the Gambia as a child, and then by her father, Sanjally Jobarteh.
8.
Sona Jobarteh attended the Royal College of Music, where she studied cello, piano and harpsichord, and soon after went on to the Purcell School of Music to study composition.
9.
Sona Jobarteh completed a degree at SOAS University of London.
10.
Sona Jobarteh is fluent in Mandinka as well as in English.
11.
Sona Jobarteh gave her first performance at London's Jazz Cafe at the age of four, and performed at festivals several times in her early childhood.
12.
Sona Jobarteh featured on Damon Albarn's Mali Music Project, which was later performed for Jools Holland.
13.
Sona Jobarteh has collaborated on stage with Oumou Sangare, Toumani Diabate, Kasse Made Diabate and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
14.
Sona Jobarteh has contributed to his albums Malian Royal Court Music and Lamentations, for which she composed two pieces, one of which featured on the album Trance Planet Vol.
15.
Sona Jobarteh makes a guest appearance on the 2021 album Djourou by Ballake Sissoko.
16.
Sona Jobarteh worked with her father, Sanjally Jobarteh, in setting up a formal music school in the Gambia, named after her famous grandfather.
17.
Sona Jobarteh made her debut as a film composer in 2009 when she was commissioned to create the soundtrack to a documentary film on Africa entitled Motherland.
18.
Sona Jobarteh has used the kora as a bass instrument as well as tuning it to an "Arabic" scale.
19.
Sona Jobarteh has used the guitar to emulate the sound of an African lute, as well as being influenced by the West African griot style of playing.
20.
Sona Jobarteh invented a new instrument called the Nkoni for use in many of the compositions to capture a unique sound.
21.
Sona Jobarteh is English-born of African heritage, and strongly identifies with the latter.