"A musician and educator from the Gambia, Jobarteh was born into one of the five principal griot families in West Africa, a hereditary tradition that dates back over 700 years to the Mali Empire. Jobarteh is the first woman within this ancient tradition to master the kora, a 21-string instrument from the Mandeng regions. Originally introduced to the kora at the age of 4 by her elder brother Tunde Jegede, she went on to study under her father, breaking an ancient, male-dominated tradition that had been exclusively handed down from father to son for the past seven centuries. As a lifelong musician, Jobarteh earned a scholarship to the prestigious Purcell School of Music and the Royal College of Music in the U.K., where she studied the cello, piano, and harpsichord as well as composition and scoring. Her career has scaled to new heights with tours throughout Europe, China, Africa, India, Australia, and the U.S. She has also headlined sold-out concerts at the Barbican in London; the Kölner Philharmonie in Cologne, Germany; and La Seine Musicale in Paris. Jobarteh’s music combines the traditional sound of her Gambian heritage with more modern elements of jazz, blues, and R&B/soul. Her most recent record, Badinyaa Kummo, displays her skills as an innovative composer and multi-instrumentalist, and includes guest appearances by Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, Malian kora master Ballaké Sissoko, and American saxophonist Kirk Whalum. In 2022, she was commissioned to write the opening and closing sequence music for the film Beast, starring Idris Elba.
In addition to her musical career, Jobarteh is a social activist and educator, having founded the Gambia Academy, a groundbreaking institution for children aged 8–18 dedicated to reforming the African education system. The academy teaches a pioneering new academic curriculum that centers uniquely on African core values, traditions, and perspectives. Through her music and African-centered education system, Jobarteh strives to give African culture prominence and relevance in a world where she feels it has been mostly viewed as inferior. In her recent CBS 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl, Jobarteh discussed how breaking convention as the first female kora master 'is a very central and important adaptation that tradition must take in order to be relevant to our new society.'"
