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Gambian multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer. She is from one of the five principal kora-playing griot families of West Africa, and is the first female professional kora player to come from a griot family.

Pat Thomas was born in Agona, Ghana. His father was a music theory instructor and his mother a bandleader.

Founded in 2009, the Owiny Sigoma Band began during a cultural exchange project in Kenya entitled ‘The Art of Protest’. A group of london based musicians including Jesse Hackett, his brother Louis and school friend Tom Skinner were introduced to local musicians Joseph Nyamungu and Charles Owoko. Whilst both of them were singers, Nyamungu specialised in playing the Nyatiti, a stringed lute popular amongst the Luo people in western Kenya, whilst Owoko would play the Nyaduonge drum.

singer from Mali's Wassoulou region

Hiroshima based experimental composer, was influenced from the tranquility and traditional Japanese mood while growing up with his grandmother, his music and art are driven by bringing back what he believes is fading away from the Japanese society generation after generation.

music producer, Ambient live musician, and synth player living in Tokyo.

Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 is the first album by Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '66. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011. Referring to the song "Mas que Nada" Mendes said in 2014: "It was the first time that a song in Portuguese was a hit in America and all over the world".

Chiwoniso Maraire was a Zimbabwean singer, songwriter, and exponent of Zimbabwean mbira music. She was the daughter of Zimbabwean mbira master and teacher Dumisani Maraire. Describing the mbira, an instrument traditionally used by male musicians, she said, "It is like a large xylophone." She died at age 37 due to complications of Pneumonia.

Ecuadorian DJ and producer Nicola Cruz effortlessly blends ancestral Andean cosmology and folkloric music customs from across the globe into decidedly contemporary electronic expressions.

From Mali. He learnt playing guitar mainly by listening to the kamalen n'goni, a Malian instrument with 8 strings and a large calebash as a resonance box. The style he plays is inspired by the rhythm of the didadi, the music of Bougouni, and it is this combination of blues (kamalen n'goni) and swing (didadi) which makes his first album so attractive.

Dubbed a “super-musician” by fellow Brazilian virtuoso Hermeto Pascoal, Mazzotti’s short but rich musical career culminated in just two studio albums: Ninguem Vai Me Segurar (1974), and Ana Mazzotti (1977). Outside circles of Brazilian funk aficionados, these two gems of spellbinding samba-jazz, lysergic funk and trippy bossa have remained relatively obscure. Ana died at the age of 37 in a battle with cancer.

A Cameroonian musicologist, writer, composer, and broadcaster. He was also the first African musician to use electric keyboards and programmable drum machines which he set alongside off the traditional African instruments.

Gia Fu, a DJ/selector and music producer from Hong Kong, specializes in Afro-Latin music, particularly Salsa and associated rhythms. Beyond extensive touring as an international DJ and music producer, her research work explores how cultures - including her own Chinese heritage and Latin American influences - enrich one another. Having grown up in a culturally vibrant environment, her upbringing fuels her passion for challenging stereotypes and promoting inclusion within the music industry.

Belgian composer, arranger, keyboardist, flutist, sitarist, vocalist, harpist, percussionist, producer, engineer and conductor.

A musician from Mali, noted as a singer and guitarist. He is from the town of Niafunke on the River Niger, and a member of the Sonrai people. Bocoum is an agricultural advisor by profession.

Pronounced "Rajer" A player of the valiha from Madagascar who founded the modern valiha orchestra. The valiha is a tube zither from Madagascar made from a species of local bamboo: it is considered the "national instrument" of Madagascar.