Sona Jobarteh: The library in the school had a kora there, hanging on the wall. So I would be always looking at this thing. And then, one day, I decided to-- to take it off the wall.

That is, until Sona Jobarteh. At 39, she has become one of the foremost kora players in the world, performing with her band across Europe, West Africa, and here in the United States, as we saw in ...