Music
Zena is a singer and multi-instrumentalist whose work navigates the space between dreams, ancestry and memory in sound and imagery. Inspired by the Jaliyaa music tradition of West Africa, Zena has spent the past 17 years traveling in the US, West Africa and Europe studying the Kora, a 21-string West African bridge harp that originates from the Malian Empire during the 13th century. Learning both ritual and experimental forms of indigenous string music and storytelling with masters from The Gambia, and Guineau, she most recently completed an intensive training in Paris with Grammy award winner, and Kora virtuoso, Toumani Diabate of Mali.
“Listening to Zena is a Hauntingly beautiful experience” -Curbed
“a culmination of that work, a genre-defying ode to what is lost and reclaiming histories carried by Carlota’s distinctive soothing voice and the atmospheric sound of the Kora” -Afro Punk
These teachings are the threads that have allowed Zena to combine the ancient past with the present moment, using language as both a sacred invocation of her ancestry, and musical inspiration, by singing traditional and original songs in English, Bambara, Arabic and Spanish.
Zena has opened spaces for Rising Appalachia, Climbing Poetree, Grammy nominees Amadou & Miriam and two-time Latin Grammy winner and former Minister of Culture of Peru, Susana Baca. She has collaborated several times with mythologist Michael Meade in presentations of ecstatic poetry, and most recently was a featured artist in the Rumi Concert: an ensemble presentation of poetry, music and dance with poet Coleman Barks, frame drum master Glen Velez, cellist Eugene Friesen and dancer Zuleikha.