Leo Sarkisian Library of African Music

The Leo Sarkisian Collection of African Music consists of more than 10 000 audio reels, most of which were created by Leo Sarkisian. Sarkisian is the long-time host of Voice of America’s (VOA) “Music Time in Africa” radio program.

After receiving funding from the U.S. government to travel throughout Africa, Sarkisian many countries over half a century, returning with thousands of rare recordings of music. He travelled with an enormous reel-to-reel from village to village, sweet-talking people into singing and playing for him. He discovered African musicians who would later become legends themselves, such as Fela Kuti, whom he first recorded in Lagos.

His recordings are stored in the basement of VOA at the Leo Sarkisian Library of African Music. The collection is gradually digitized by the University of Michigan’s (UM) African studies department. The original agreement was on digitizing 100 tapes and the whole Sarkisian collection is with the UM. Askew, a founding director of UM’s African Studies Center, was instrumental in bringing the Sarkisian collection to university. Her scholarship in East Africa and her previous efforts to review and organize the Sarkisian Collection’s tape recordings led to an agreement between UM and Voice of America in 2010 to digitize a selection of 350 of Sarkisian’s field recordings.

Sarkisian has officially retired from the Voice of America and is over 92 years old.