Workshop Teachers and Presenters

Erica Azim — Erica 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 and has two published solo mbira CDs. 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.

Godfrey Banda — Godfrey grew up in a musical family in Zimbabwe, resulting in a rich experience of mbira, hosho, and dance, and a lifelong passion for music. His Sekuru (grandfather) was a pastor in the Church of Christ and his Mbuya (grandmother) a traditional healer. He studied mbira with Douglas Hungwe, Chenjerai Mhofu, and C.N. Maganga, and has continued to learn on his own by listening to mbira tapes. Godfrey feels that mbira playing, singing, and dance are inspired in us individually and directly by vadzimu vedu (our ancestors). After arriving in the US a year ago, he spent a great deal of time with ‘his friend’ the mbira talking back to him, shouting, sometimes whispering, answering all his spoken and unspoken questions “imbira idzodzo.” He is currently collaborating with Solomon Murungu teaching, performing, and promoting Zimbabwe’s rich musical heritage.

Nathan Beck — Nathan has studied Shona music since the early 1990s, including extensive study in Zimbabwe with Cosmas Magaya, Garikayi Tirikoti, 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.

Michael Breez — Teacher, performer, director, and composer, Michael Breez has dedicated 24 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.

Nabi Camara — Zimfest 2002 is pleased to welcome master balafon player Nabi Camara, a griot from the village of Boke in Guinea. Nabi was born into a hereditary family of musicians and studied with Amadou Diabate. As a young man he diversified his musical background by traveling extensively throughout coastal West Africa. He has toured in Europe, Australia, and Japan, performing with Les Ballets Africains de Guinea, and has collaborated on recordings with many internationally known African musicians including Mory Kante, Salif Keita, and Alpha Yaya Diallo. Nabi currently makes his home in Seattle, where he leads the band Lagni Sussu — loosely translated as “black and white people living together.” Nabi’s innovative balafon playing style shows a continuous blend of old and new, and we are sure you will appreciate the skill and creativity he brings to Zimbabwean-style marimbas.

Musekiwa Chingodza — Musekiwa 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.

Ferguson Chiorah — Ferguson was born into a royal family at Chikwizi School in the NeChiorah Kraal. He was raised by his uncle, who was chief at the time. Ferguson went to school at Rusitu Mission and later Domboshawa School, where he trained as an agriculture teacher. He eventually moved to Old Umtali Mission where he married Jane, and they both taught in Methodist schools for 20 years. VaChiorah went on to become head master in several public schools until his retirement as head at Matanhire Rural School. He took a break from teaching for about 10 years and ran a lorries business; he also entered politics under the United Federal Party during the time of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in the 1960s. He is now retired, a father of 7, grandfather of 16, and great grandfather of 6.

Jane Chiorah — Now a retired schoolteacher, Jane was born, raised, and educated at Old Umtali Mission. She did her teacher training at Umtali Teacher Training College and taught in Methodist schools for over 20 years before moving into the public schools. Jane was a member of the Methodist Women’s Ruwadzano and has served as a member or officer of numerous women’s clubs in the Dangamvura District near Mutare. She is a mother of 7 children, a grandmother of 16, and a great grandmother of 6.

Lora Lue Chiorah-Dye — Lora 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 26 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 the has worked as a recreation specialist for the Seattle Parks Department for 24 years, mostly at Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center.

Maggie Donahue — Maggie was caught unawares by Shona music when she heard Dumi Maraire at Eugene’s WOW Hall in the early 1980s. The music, dance, culture, and people of Zimbabwe have held her ever since. She was part of Shumba’s early days and studied with Gary Goldwater and Dumi. With Dumi’s encouragement and energetic students she started Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center in 1990 and has taught there ever since. (There is an unusually soft spot in her heart for kids who love marimbas.) She currently plays with Kudana. She is a perpetual student, a reluctant teacher, a performer (every chance she gets), and a dancer at heart.

Beauler Dyoko — Beauler, known as the “Queen of Mbira Music,” was Zimbabwe’s first woman mbira recording artist. She is the leader and featured singer of the popular mbira ensemble The Black Souls. She has performed with Mhuri yekwa Rwizi/Soul of Mbira groups in Zimbabwe and throughout the world. Ambuya Beauler is also a spirit medium, herbalist, fashion designer, and teacher of traditional Shona cooking. She is an active member of organizations promoting women musicians in Zimbabwe, and has written original songs in support of AIDS awareness and non-violence. Beauler is the sole supporter of a large extended family of grandchildren, nieces, and nephews in Zimbabwe.

Navaro Irene Franco — Navaro has been studying African music, dance, and inner arts since 1983. She has been performing and teaching for the past 13 years. Navaro’s diverse musical background includes the following styles: Brazilian, Latin, Shona, and West African. She studied intensively in Zimbabwe in 2000, and has worked with Marimba Muzuva since 1995.

Kite Giedraitis — Kite has been playing Shona music since 1987 and began teaching 13 years ago in Portland. He was an original member of Boka Marimba, playing with them for 3 years before traveling in Zimbabwe for a year and Ghana for 3 months. He founded Village Spirit in Portland in 1992. The following bands have evolved out of his classes: Dancing Trees, Kukuva, Flying Safari Ants, Chiremba, White Rhino, and Zimba.

Deborah Johnsen — Deborah has been playing marimba for 9 years. Her performance experience includes 7 years with Musasa Marimba Ensemble under the direction of Michael Breez, and 2 years as founding co-director of Njuzu Marimba. She currently performs with Musasa. Deborah has been teaching for 7 years in northwest Washington, and has completed an extensive teacher training program with Rufaro School of Marimba. Her engaging teaching style helps make learning this exciting music fun and accessible to everyone.

MyLinda King — MyLinda played with Boka Marimba between 1989 and 1999. For the last eight years she has been teaching marimba groups in her home, in Portland schools, and at music camps. She also gives workshops to local marimba bands. She enjoys making hosho for the Zimbabwean music community and has written a book, Making Your Own Hosho.

Forward Kwenda — Forward is one of the most respected mbira performers in Zimbabwe. At the age of 14 Forward borrowed an mbira, and with no teacher other than occasional radio programs, began to play on his own. The next year he 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. His 1997 CD “Svikiro: Meditations of an Mbira Master” received critical acclaim. He also has two recent CDs: “Chakwi” and “Nighttime Nemakonde.”

Jennifer Kyker — Jennifer began to play Shona marimba at age 10 and mbira a few years later. Jennifer has performed with various artists in Zimbabwe and the US, including Tute Chigamba and Mhembero, Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited, and Kudana Marimba Ensemble. She and Musekiwa Chingodza recorded their first CD, “Tsunga,” in 2000 and are currently working on a second album to be released later this year. A recent graduate of Mt. Holyoke College, Jennifer has received a Fulbright award to return to Zimbabwe this fall, where she will continue to study and perform mbira and singing.

Joel Laviolette — Joel 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 11 years and has performed with many groups, including Wagogo, Jaka, and Nheravauya Mbira Group.

Paul Lunga — Zimfest 2002 welcomes Paul Lunga, one of Zimbabwe’s preeminent jazz musicians and composers. Born in Bulawayo, Paul has performed professionally for over 30 years. He learned his art from the township jazz veterans of western Zimbabwe and South Africa. His specialty is trumpet and flugelhorn, although he plays all the instruments of the ensemble. With his band Jazz Impacto, Paul performs regularly in Zimbabwe and has toured in the UK. The group has produced two recordings, and a third is forthcoming.

Cosmas Magaya — Cosmas is an internationally recognized mbira player and teacher and is the leader of the ensemble Mhuri yekwa Magaya. He been an avid student and player of mbira dzavadzimu from the time he was eight, when he ‘pinched’ his cousin’s instrument for surreptitious study. Cosmas is a master of the instrument, having studied with many great players. He has performed with the renowned Mhuri yekwa Rwizi mbira group for over 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 in the 1970s, and continues to work closely with Dr. Berliner as a consultant on Zimbabwean music. Cosmas experienced both sides of Christian and Traditional lives 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 whose advice is sought by people from all walks of life.

Tsitsi Magaya — I was born in Bulawayo and spent much of my childhood years in different parts of Matebeleland. Even though we lived among the Ndebele, my parents made it a point to teach us our Zezuru traditions and culture. To reinforce their teachings they took us to Mhondoro as often as possible to stay with our grandparents. My grandfather, a n’anga and cultural expert, taught me almost everything that I know about our culture. My inspiration has always been my mother. She worked very hard with my dad to keep us in school and well catered for. Whenever I did well in my exams, the happiness that showed in her eyes and smile always brought me satisfaction, and her confidence in me made me determined. At present I am working towards a bachelor’s degree in accounting here in the United States.

Peter Masundire — Peter grew up in Zimbabwe, lived in London, England, for 16 years, and is now settled in Seattle, Washington, where he has been giving individual tutorials in Shona Language since 1998. His lessons are based on the Zezuru dialect of the Shona Language. Peter is very active in the Seattle local Zimbabwean community where he works to promote Zimbabwean culture and music; he recently co-produced Oliver Mutukudzi’s concerts in Seattle and Portland during his Vhunze Moto tour. Peter has performed with Sukutai Marimba and Dance Ensemble for the last 3 years. He has played an advisory role to several Zimfests, especially on issues relating to immigration and Zimbabwean culture, has been a Shona Language instructor at Zimfest for the last 3 years, and he recently collaborated with the Seattle Art Museum on its landmark special exhibition, “Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back.” Peter is the Productions Director for this year’s Zimfest.

Paul Mataruse — Originally from Zimbabwe, Paul has been living in North America for the past 6 years. He recently graduated with a degree in Chemistry from Gonzaga University in Spokane and will go on to medical school in England. Paul has been playing marimba for 16 years.

Sheasby Matiure — Sheasby is currently a lecturer in music education at the University of Zimbabwe. He previously taught for some years at Seke Teacher Training College, just outside Harare. He has also acted as manager and artistic director of the Zimbabwe National Dance Company. In 1999 Sheasby was an artist in residence with the International Vocal Ensemble at Indiana University, where he subsequently graduated with an MA in Ethnomusicology. Sheasby is a highly respected musician, adept at playing mbira, ngoma, hosho, and marimba, and at teaching choral singing.

Maria Minaar — Maria grew up in Zimbabwe where her love of its music and culture was nurtured by her father, an ethnomusicologist. Playing marimbas since age 14, Maria currently teaches two community bands in Groveton, Texas. She has produced a marimba music CD with her previous youth band from Brenham, Texas, and after her father’s death in 1993 she began manufacturing marimba instruments in order to continue his work.

Stella Mkarakate — Stella, the wife of jazz trumpeter Paul Lunga, will be sharing her knowledge of Zimbabwean song, games, and story-telling at Zimfest 2002. Born in Harare, she is a qualified interior designer and occasional vocalist with Mr. Lunga’s group Jazz Impacto.

Linc Mkwananzi — Zimbabwean performer and teacher Linc Mkwananzi was raised in a village of music in the countryside of Zimbabwe and began performing professionally at age 8. His artistic talents enabled him to tour Southern Africa and Europe and take part in movies such as Sarafina and Cry Freedom. Linc has used his music on a global scale to show peaceful resistance in dealing with oppressive leaders and repressive governments, which he survived during the harsh struggles of Southern Africa. Now based in the States, Linc gives the true experience of Africa sharing his healing music through performing and teaching workshops.

Ilana Moon — Ilana has been studying and performing African dance over 15 years. Her principal Zimbabwean dance teachers have been Irene and Julia Chigamba, and more recently, Charles Mzite. Ilana has performed Zimbabwean dances for 4 years with Amani Marimba band of Hornby Island and has been teaching adult and children’s dance classes for 3 years. She is also knowledgeable in gumboot dancing and in several West African styles.

Lucky Moyo — Lucky has performed and taught Ndebele, Kalanga, and Suthu choral music and dance on the international stage for 20 years. He was a founding and core member of Black Umfolosi, the well-known Zimbabwean a capella vocal and dance group. Lucky now works with Music For Change (http://www.musicforchange.org) and is part of a new Zimbabwean organization called Arts Oasis, established to provide resources, training, equipment, and workshop leaders in the performing arts. He is currently residing in Cambridge, England, where he is in the final stages of his MA. His dissertation will explore the needs for professional training for managers in the arts industries in Zimbabwe.

Kelly Takunda Orphan — Kelly 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. In 2001 Kelly went back to Zimbabwe, where she played lots of mbira and ngoma, and sang and danced with the Chigamba family.

Sheree Seretse — Sheree began studying with Dumisani Maraire in 1970. She started 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 known 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. She lectures on Shona music at Langston Hughes and around the country.