Sean Gaskell will present a combined music and educational presentation on the West African Kora, a 21 string harp. The West African Kora is native to the Mandinka people of Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, and Guinea Bissau. It dates back 300 years, although some of the music comes from the middle 13th century, around the founding of the Manding  empire. Sean has studied with master Kora players Malamini Jobarteh and Moriba Kuyateh from the Gambia over the course of multiple visits. Between songs, he will talk about the Kora, how it is built, how he was introduced to it, who typically plays it, its cultural significance, and what it was like to live in the Gambia while he studied.