Sona Jobarteh will perform in the next Cornell Concert Series (CCS) production on March 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Bailey Hall.
Preserving her musical past, Sona Jobarteh innovates to support a more humanitarian future. The spirit of her musical work stands on the mighty shoulders of the West African griot tradition; she is a living archive of the Gambian people. Her singing and kora playing, while fronting her band, spring directly from this heritage. Sona Jobarteh has performed live to audiences from the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Symphony Space in New York to London’s Barbican, Cologne’s Philharmonie, and the Seine Musicale in Paris. Hailed as “mould-breaking” (Songlines Magazine), Sona Jobarteh is “a griot for a new generation” (BBC World Service).
Sona’s dedication to spreading powerful humanitarian messages through her songs and her stage performances makes her much more than a musician; she is active in social change and leads by her own example. Sona founded The Gambia Academy, a pioneering institution dedicated to achieving educational reform across the continent of Africa. This Academy is the first of its kind to deliver a mainstream academic curriculum at a high level, whilst also bringing the culture, traditions and history that belong to its students to the front and center.
In addition to the concert, Sona Jobarteh will join Cornell faculty members for a panel discussion about gender, culture, and development in Africa at 12:30 pm on Friday, March 21 in Lincoln Hall B20. The discussion is free with no tickets required.
Artist and program information, subscriptions, single tickets, and student memberships are available at cornellconcertseries.com.
Free evening parking is available at the Forest Home (37 Forest Home Dr.) and Hoy garages. More information and campus maps can be found on the Cornell Concert Series website or transportation.cornell.edu.
The Cornell Concert Series has been hosting musicians and ensembles of international stature since 1903. Originally featuring Western classical artists, the series presented Ravi Shankar in 1987 and has since grown to encompass a broader spectrum of the world's great music.
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