Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Opening track “Gobaith” was one such: a harp ostinato like a far-off church bell, then a wash of kora and a ...

The 21-string kora is West Africa’s traditional harp lute. It is part of West African musical history in Senegal, Guinea, Mali, and other countries. It is a beautiful hand-crafted instrument: a large ...

Welsh harpist Catrin FinchSeckou Keita and Senegalese kora player met by chance in 2012, when Keita was called in to substitute for Toumani Diabaté in rehearsals for a tour with Finch. A military coup ...

The kora is a West African harp with 21 strings and a large calabash gourd body. According to Eric Charry, a historian of West African music, the instrument originated in the late 18th century, during ...

Sean Gaskell fell in love with the sound of the harp in 2006. Not just any old harp, but a kora harp. "I first heard the kora played by musician Kane Mathis," Gaskell told the Herald via email. "I was ...

On a moonlit African night in a leafy open-air bar, kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate is peeling off an ethereal flood of kaleidoscopic riffs from a 21-string cow-skin covered harp like one his ...

Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita are a duo by serendipity. In early 2012 Finch, a leading Welsh harpist, was due to embark on a tour of the Principality with the Malian kora maestro Toumani Diabaté.

Kora virtuoso Ballaké Sissoko is less famous, worldwide, than his neighbour. But he is just as great a player of that harp/lute & as musically imaginative. Tomora contains a sublime duet with Toumani ...

Leave it to Real Art Ways, one of Hartford’s most innovative art spaces, to launch a new music series focusing on a single instrument family. The second half of “Instrument Portrait Series: Harp” (two ...

Performing on the 21-string Mandinka Harp and the Turkish Oud, Kane Mathis renders compelling interpretations of these traditional musics. Years of study with generous masters have given Kane a rare ...

“Telepathically-inspired sonic odes full of mystery and mastery between kora and flute that transport the listener to a celestial place where the imagination runs free and the heart knows no limits.” ...