Erica Azim fell in love with Shona mbira music when she first heard it at the age of 16. In 1974 she became one of the first Americans to study mbira in Zimbabwe. She has performed all over the US and in Zimbabwe. Her third mbira CD has recently been released. Erica is particularly adept at making mbira music accessible to American audiences. Currently she teaches mbira at her internationally-attended camps at her home in Berkeley, California and in workshops throughout the US.

Jaiaen Beck was introduced to Zimbabwean music by Dumi Maraire, through an interest in Shona spirituality. Since 1990 she has studied with several Zimbabwean and North American teachers to learn marimba, mbira and vocals. Rufaro School of Marimba provided two years of teacher training. She has taught classes of all ages for eight years. Her passion is networking with people seeking to join others in a common cause.

Nathan Beck has studied Shona music since the early 1990s, including extensive study in Zimbabwe with Cosmas Magaya, Garikayi Tirikot and the Chigamba family. Nathan has been a member of Boka Marimba for many years. He has taught at Zimfest and at Camp Tumbuka, as well as in Portland area schools. His areas of expertise include mbira, marimba and hosho.

Chris Berry has been studying African drumming since 1984, and has been studying and playing mbira and marimba since 1989. Chris has performed at several international tours since 1991, and has been teaching since 1988 - in universities, schools and communities in five countries.

Michael Breez, teacher, performer, director and composer has dedicated 23 years to the study of Shona music from Zimbabwe, Africa, mostly with the guidance and support of his mentor, the late Dr. Abraham Dumisani Maraire. Michael currently teaches marimba to people of all ages throughout the western US. Michael joins us from Bingen, Washington.

Julia (Tsitsi) Chigamba is a long time member of Mhembero, the Chigamba family dance and mbira ensemble. A native Zimbabwean and daughter of the highly respected Gwenyambira Tute Chigamba, she has grown up in the traditions of Shona music and dance. Recently, Julia has been teaching in schools in Oakland, California. She joins us for her third Zimfest, and we are happy to have her back!

Musekiwa Chingodza was born into a family of great mbira players in Mwangara village, Murewa, Zimbabwe in 1970. He began playing mbira at the age of five and is self-taught. Through listening to other gwenyambira, or great mbira players, he developed a strong attachment to and love for mbira music. He says, “Our music is both medicine and food, as mbira has the power to heal and to provide for people. Mbira pleases both the living and the dead.” In 1991 Musekiwa was a key member of the band Panjea, founded by Chris Berry. He composed the hit song “Ganda” on Panjea’s Zimbabwean album. Currently Musekiwa teaches mbira at Prince Edward School in Harare. He is an excellent singer, dancer and drummer and plays both mbira dzavadzimu and nyunga nyunga.

Lora Lue Chiorah-Dye has taught for the Washington State Arts Commission for over 20 years, sharing her knowledge of music, song, dance, story-telling and children’s games. She has performed for the past 25 years either with Sukutai Marimba and Dance Ensemble or with Dumi and Minanzi Marimba Ensemble. Lora was born and grew up in Zimbabwe. She now lives in Seattle, where she has worked as a recreation specialist for the Seattle Parks Department for 23 years, mostly at Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center.

Carl Dean makes his home in Portland, Oregon where he has built over 150 marimbas in the past 6 years. He has taught his skills in local schools and shared his knowledge of building at previous Zimfests.

Rujeko Dumbutshena was born and grew up among the Shona people of Zimbabwe and has a rich life steeped in the ancient music and dance traditions of her people. In 1991 Rujeko left Zimbabwe, and since that time she has taught classes, lectured and performed nationally as well as internationally. She is currently teaching African dance at the University of New Mexico and performing with Panjea as well as directing her own dance company: The Blue Tribe Dance Company.

Ambuya Beauler Dyoko is one of the best known female mbira players and singers in Zimbabwe. She has performed with Mhuri yekwa Rwizi/Soul of Mbira groups and her own band for many years in Zimbabwe and throughout the world. She and her 10-member band have made several recordings.

Mary Ellen Garrett lives near Boulder, Colorado and performs with Chimanimani. She has studied with Sheree Seretse, Claire Jones, Stephen Golovnin, Chris Berry, and Erica Azim, and has taken workshops from Chris Mhlanga, Forward Kwenda, and Cosmas Magaya. Mary Ellen started learning marimba in 1989, and mbira and hosho in 1990. She began teaching in 1991 and has taught both private lessons and group classes to students ranging from grade school age through adult. Mary Ellen has expertise in injury prevention and a deep love for hosho and mbira.

Farai Gezi is a graduate of the Kwanongoma College of African Music and has taught both African and European music for 19 years. He is currently a music teacher at Groombridge School and at the German School in Harare. He runs a backyard marimba workshop which is very popular with visiting marimba players. He also runs the Harare Marimba Ensemble. He has many years’ experience in teaching both children and adults. Uncle Farai teaches the building and playing of marimbas, nyunga nyunga mbira, and helps new marimba groups as they form. He also plays guitar, flute, and ngoma (drum).

Stephen Golovnin has been playing marimba and mbira “for awhile.” Major teaching influences came from Dumisani Maraire and Erica Azim. A bit of a renegade, Stephen adheres to the faith that music will find its purest expression through an open heart and open mind.

Larry Israel studied and performed with Dumisani Maraire from 1977 to 1982 and was a member of several outstanding Seattle-based marimba ensembles: Dumi and the Maraire Marimba Ensemble (1978-1982), Kutamba (1982-1989), Musango (1990-1995), and Muchadura (1996-1997). Larry has been teaching Zimbabwean marimba since 1986. He now lives in Santa Cruz, California, and plays in Kuzanga.

Claire Jones has been involved with Zimbabwean music since 1976 when she first fell in love with the marimbas and started studying with the late Dumi Maraire. She performed for several years with Dumi and the Maraire Marimba Ensemble both in the US and in Zimbabwe, and was a founding member of the Seattle marimba groups Kutamba and Musango, as well as Mahonyera Mbira group. While living in Zimbabwe from 1985 to 1990 she played mbira with Mhuri Yekwa Muchena, and authored the book Making Music: Musical Instruments in Zimbabwe Past and Present. Claire is recently back from 14 months of research in Zimbabwe and is working on her doctoral dissertation at the University of Washington.

Forward Kwenda is one of the most respected mbira performers in Zimbabwe. He was given the name “Forward” because of his curiosity and enthusiastic involvement in many activities. At the age of 14, Forward borrowed an mbira, and with no teacher other than occasional radio programs, began to play on his own. He later formed his own mbira group and began recording and performing. He was informed by powerful rain-making spirits that he was to devote his life to playing mbira for their ceremonies. Forward has received international acclaim for the virtuosity, soulfulness, and unprecedented range of melodic and rhythmic improvisation of his playing.

Jennifer Kyker began to play Shona marimba at age ten and mbira at age 14. Jennifer has performed with various artists both in Zimbabwe and in the US, including Tute Chigamba and Mhembero, Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited, and Chris Berry and Panjea. She and Musekiwa Chingodza have recently released the new CD entitled “Tsunga.”

Joel Laviolette II has studied mbira since 1995, including two years in Zimbabwe where he primarily studied with Newton Gwara (kore-kore style) and Chaka Chawasarira (matepe). He has also been making field recordings of numerous types of mbira as well as other instruments such as nyanga, and has just founded Mhumhi Records. Joel has taught music for over 10 years, and has performed with many groups including Wagogo, Jaka, and Nheravauya Mbira Group.

Cosmas Magaya has been an avid student of mbira dzaVadzimu from the time he was eight, when he “pinched” his cousin’s instrument for surreptitious study. He is a master of the instrument, having studied with many great players. He has performed with the renowned Mhuri yekwa Rwizi mbira group for 25 years, participating with them in concert tours of Europe and the US. He was instrumental in the writing of Paul Berliner’s “The Soul of Mbira.” A patient and articulate teacher, he especially enjoys teaching beginners. Cosmas experienced both Christian and traditional culture as he grew up. His parents were married in the Roman Catholic Church, and his father is a renowned n’anga, or traditional healer, as well as a cultural expert, consulted by people from all walks of life.

Scott Mast has been studying various African drumming styles for over ten years, with an emphasis on rhythms of Zimbabwe for the past few years. Following an apprenticeship with Chris Berry and Rujeko Dumbutshena, he spent time in Zimbabwe refining his skills. Scott currently resides in Boulder, Colorado, where he teaches weekly drum classes emphasizing rhythms of Zimbabwe and Cuba.

Peter Masundire grew up in Zimbabwe and has been giving individual tutorials in Shona language in Seattle since 1998. His lessons are based on the Zezuru dialect of the Shona language.

Randy McIntosh is Kutandara Center’s Music Director. He comes to us from Colorado, where he graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in music, and from the Univ. of Co. with a master’s degree in music composition. Randy’s love of Zimbabwean music inspires him to write and arrange his own Shona-style compositions. Randy has taught at University-level as well as directed a world music ensemble. In addition to his Kutandara Center classes, Randy is also teaching Zimbabwean-style music at the Colorado Academy and the Denver School of the Arts. He is currently directing Kutandara, and co-directing the Shamwari Youth Marimba Ensemble and Musangano.

Tom Melkonian is a lifelong musician who began playing Shona marimba music in 1990 with Dumi Maraire. Tom and other members of Dandaro enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with Dumi, and Dandaro was a force in the Santa Cruz area, playing countless gigs for eight years. In 1993, Tom began teaching marimba classes along with Don Davidson. He also began playing mbira, with Linda Friedlander, in 1991. Tom has been to every zimfest except 1998, when he was in Zimbabwe, where he made many friends, and studied mbira with Tute Chigamba, Newton Gwara and Wiri Chigonga, and marimba with Mataure and Garadziva Chigamba, as well as Pfungwa and Simba Chaka.

Lucky Moyo is a world-class performer with Black Umfolosi, a Zimbabwean a capella vocal and dance group which tours worldwide. For the past 18 years, Lucky has been performing and teaching Ndebele, Kalanga, and Suthu choral music, dance, and related arts. He currently lives in Cambridge, England, where he is a student. Lucky performed with Black Umfolosi at Zimfest 1997 in Victoria, and we are very glad to have him back, this time to teach.

Sarah Noll traveled to Zimbabwe in 1991 and was fortunate to study dance, mbira and hosho with Irene Chigamba and other members of the National Dance Company, Mondreck Muchena and Clayton Ndlovu. A music teacher for fifteen years, she currently performs in the San Francisco Bay Area with the percussion/vocal ensemble Mutama.

Kelly Takunda Orphan is a native to the San Francisco Bay Area. As a vocalist, percussionist and songwriter, she has performed both here and abroad with various African/World Music groups, such as Babatunde Olatunji and African Rain, Mhembero Dance Company and the University of Zimbabwe Choir. After her year abroad studying at the University of Zimbabwe (1994), Kelly served as Co-Director of San Jose State University’s World Music Choir (1995-99). She is the artistic director of Mutama, a vocal/percussion ensemble, and performs and tours with Keith Terry’s Crosspulse, an internationally renowned percussion ensemble. Kelly recently returned from a month-long musical journey back to Zimbabwe, where she played lots of mbira and ngoma, sang and danced with the Chigamba family.

Sheree Seretse began studying with Dumisani Maraire in 1970, began performing with him in 1971, and teaching with him in 1973. She has been teaching at the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center in Seattle since 1978, where her marimba class developed into a professional group later know as Sukutai Marimba Ensemble. Currently she performs with Anzanga, which she founded in 1986. Sheree teaches classes on marimba, mbira, ngoma, dance and African children’s games, and lectures on Shona music at Langston Hughes and around the country.

Amy Stewart is Kutandara Center’s Program Director. She spent the last five years studying mbira dzavadzimu, and African drumming with many master teachers, both from Zimbabwe and the US. A western music student since age 7, Amy has spent much of her professional career teaching music and environmental education to children of all ages. Three years ago she began teaching youth marimba classes. She currently performs with Kutandara and co-directs the Shamwari Youth Ensemble and Musangano.