Variously described as a ‘griot (praise singer), composer, djembe master, virtuoso and pioneer’, Seckou Keita is a rare type of musician, seated in tradition whilst constantly pushing the boundaries of his art. A true master of the kora – a 22 stringed West African harp – Seckou, from the Casamance area of Southern Senegal, was a childhood prodigy, born of a line of griots and kings. Cissokho, his mother’s family name, gave life to his talent; Keita, his father’s, gave him royal blood. Seckou has graced the international stage since 1996, earning worldwide acclaim for his kora playing and appearing with a host of fellow artists, including Salif Keita, Paul Weller, Damon Alban and the Orchestra of Syrian Musicians, Youssou N’Dour, Baaba Maal, Miriam Makeba and Neil Finn. His albums Clychau Dibon (2013), the fruit of his collaboration with Welsh harpist Catrin Finch, won fRoots Critics Poll Album of The Year 2013, Songlines Magazine Best Cross-Cultural Collaboration 2014, and two BBC Radio 2 Folk Award nominations.

In 2016 he won the Songlines award for Best Album for Africa and the Middle East for 22 Strings. 2017 saw the release of Transparent Water, his collaborative album with Cuban Jazz Pianist Omar Sosa, which toured Japan, France, the UK and the USA. In 2018 he joined the lineup of The Lost Words: Spell Songs, a musical companion piece to The Lost Words: A Spell Book, the acclaimed work by authors Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, working alongside musicians Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever, Kerry Andrew, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter and Jim Molyneux. Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita released their second album SOAR in April 2018 to huge critical acclaim, sweeping the board for music industry awards, winning ‘Best Fusion’ album in the Songlines Music Awards 2019, fRoots ‘Critics Poll Album of The Year’ 2018 and ‘Best Transregional Album’ in the Transglobal World Music Chart. In October 2019, Seckou won ‘Musician of the Year’ and ‘Best Group/Duo’ for his collaborative project with Catrin Finch at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Finch and Keita have been named artists in residence at Liverpool Philharmonic for the 2020/21 season. Seckou Keita has arguably become the most influential and inspiring Kora player of his generation, an exceptional and charismatic musician and a modern global citizen, living with seven centuries of tradition and heritage expressed through his music. In his last solo album 22 Strings (released May 2015), Seckou gives us the kora in its purest guise, a wondrous instrument that can soothe the bloodlust of warriors and take the human spirit to a place of deep meditation, stillness and beauty.