Sean Gaskell, Kora Musician

Sean Gaskell, kora musician, has been playing and performing the kora since 2007 with over 300 performances at libraries across the US and Canada.

 

Creating music is universal. Making your own instrument is unique. Making a twenty to twenty-one stringed harp out of a gourd and attaching leather over it is dedication.

 

That instrument is what Sean Gaskell made. He made a West African kora.   Native to the Mandika people,  the sound of the instrument is harp-like, but in another shape. 

 

He studied in Gambia with several teachers between 2008 and 2018. In 2023 he went to Senegal to do an extensive study.

 

Oral historians traditionally play the kora. Many songs are 800 years old.

 

Sean plays a lot in libraries, assisted living facilities,  and asks the audience to sing a long in African words. He also has composed his own songs.  Sean is absorbed in his performance and expresses his pleasure of performing and sharing the music.

He is touring Nebraska this summer and at the Lexington Nebraska Public Library he performed to at least thirty people.