Decidedly female, she’s made it in a world dominated by brilliant men – traditional West African historians, genealogists and storytellers who pass their skills down the line.

With 11 strings played by the left hand and 10 by the right, it’s fiendishly difficult to learn yet magical once mastered and at the coming 50th anniversary National Folk Festival, Lieberman will show just how far she’s come from being an accomplished Western player to an authentic Australian exponent of the ancient art as she performs on the kora in concert with cellist Kate Adams, violinist Lara Goodridge and Liz Frencham on bass.

Mastery didn’t come easily. Lieberman spent years studying the music of West Africa from kora players who are traditionally members of the Griot caste.  

“You don’t just go to a school and learn the kora, you absorb yourself in the world of the Griot,” she tells “CityNews” by phone from Melbourne.

She first came across the kora while living in Guinea. With some proficiency on the West African guitar and xylophone, she was keen to study the music, songs and dances of the region.

“The first time I heard the kora, I fell in love with the sound,” she says.

“But it has so many complications that I wondered how I could possibly learn it.”

A local elder told her: “If you learn the one song, ‘Allah Lake’, and keep learning the rhythms, I promise you’ll never stop playing the kora.”

She learnt the famous song and was hooked.

Next, in the Guinean capital Conakry, she met the great Grammy award-winning kora player Toumani Diabaté and greeted him in the Malinke language.

He was so impressed that he told her he’d love to hear her play.

“It was very scary and I wasn’t that good, but he really encouraged me and appreciated my love of West African culture,” she says.

An official letter of invitation to visit his home country Mali followed and she spent time there from 2009 to 2010.

The rest is history – “mind-blowing” history to her. She recorded much of her third album with members of Diabaté’s band the Symmetric Orchestra then later, back home, released the album “Birds of the Moon”, in which she melds blues and folk with African and world music.

“But I actually wanted to have my own style,” she says, “I’ve learnt all the traditional music, but I want to take it further.”

Now Lieberman is planning and crowd funding (at pozible.com) yet another album, with a difference.

“I decided I am not an African, I’m never going to be an African,” she says.

“I have a story to tell, but I live in Melbourne and I play this wonderful instrument and it’s time to create a new style, in English. Essentially, I’m doing my own story.”

Miriam Lieberman, National Folk Festival, Exhibition Park, March 24-28, bookings to tickets@folkfestival.org.au or 6242 5944.