Workshop Teachers and Presenters

 

Stephanie Abels has been making and playing shekeres (gourd rattles) since 1981. She has a life-long background in music, with a particular emphasis on African music, especially the music of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. She has performed on shekere with many popular groups throughout the North- and Southwest. Her beautiful shekeres which are recognized as some of the finest examples of the genre, can be found at craft fairs, ethnic music stores, and fine arts boutiques around the country.

Erica Azim fell in love with Shona mbira music when she first heard it at the age of 16. In 1974, Erica became one of the first Americans to study mbira in Zimbabwe, and her teachers have included many of Zimbabwe’s top mbira masters, past and present, such as Forward Kwenda, Cosmas Magaya, Mondrek Muchena, Ephat Mujuru, Newton Gwara, Irene Chigamba, Tute Chigamba, Chris Mhlanga, Luken Pasipamire, Fradreck Mujuru and Ambuya Beauler Dyoko. Erica has recorded two solo CDs, “Mbira Dreams” and “Mbira: Healing Music of Zimbabwe.” She currently teaches regional mbira workshop groups throughout the U.S. and internationally-attended mbira camps at her home in Berkeley, California. Erica also directs the non-profit organization MBIRA, which makes field recordings available to mbira enthusiasts around the world and provides financial support to Zimbabwean mbira players and instrument makers.

Jaiaen Beck was introduced to Zimbabwean music by Dumisani Maraire, through an interest in Shona spirituality. Since 1990 she has worked with several Zimbabwean and North American teachers studying Shona music and healing traditions. She has taught music classes to all ages for eleven years, and has provided a link for people to network and offer relief aid to rural Zimbabwe for the last five years.

Nathan Beck has studied Shona music since the early 1990’s including extensive study in Zimbabwe with Cosmas Magaya, Garikayi Tirikoti, and the Chigamba family. Nathan has been a member of Boka Marimba since 1992 and also plays with Njuzu. He has taught at Zimfest, Camp Tumbuka, as well as many Portland-area schools. Currently, he teaches marimba and mbira at Lewis & Clark College.

Marigrace Becker just returned from a year-long homestay/service program in Bulawayo, and is overflowing with enthusiasm to talk about Zimbabwe, specifically Ndebele language and culture.

Michael Breez, teacher, performer, director and composer has dedicated 26 years to the study of Shona music from Zimbabwe, mostly with the guidance and support of his mentor, Dumi Maraire. Michael currently teaches marimba to people of all ages throughout the western US. Michael joins us from Hawaii.

Naby Camara — Master balafon player Naby Camara is a griot from the village of Boke in Guinea. Naby was born into a 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. He has collaborated on recordings with many internationally known African musicians including Mory Kante, Salif Keita, and Alpha Yaya Diallo. Naby currently makes his home in Seattle, where he leads the band Lagni Sussu - loosely translated as “black and white people living together.” Naby’s innovative balafon playing style shows a continuous blend of old and new.

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 27 years either with Lora and 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 25 years, mostly at Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center.

Fiona “Ona” Connon — Performing, teaching and exploring the rich depths of Shona music have been a large part of Ona’s life now for eleven years. She is honoured to have helped initiate the first marimba band in Canada - Marimba Muzuva. Hosho and dance are her passions but she also composes for marimba, and plays mbira & chipendani. Studying and performing with Tute, Irene, Julia and Garadziva Chigamba, Dumisani Maraire and Sydney Maratu have been highlights for her, as well as a trip to Zimbabwe in 1994! Ona has been a member of world beat improv group Spirit Gate, mbira quartet Choto and upbeat dance band Zimfusion! and is currently working on a solo CD.

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.

Kite Giedraitis has been playing Shona music since 1987 and began teaching 14 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 marimba classes: Zuva, Dancing Trees, Kukuva, Flying Safari Ants, Chiremba, White Rhino, Zimba, Born on Tuesday, Duduluza, Bongozozo, Eurimba and Wood Vibrations. He founded Fools in Paradise in 2001.

David Tafaneyi Gweshe is a spiritual leader and lecturer, a dance choreographer, musician, composer, storyteller, and ethnomusicologist. Born in 1940, Sekuru Gweshe, a descendant of the Lion Totem clan, comes from the Kore Kore people. He began playing njari at age 14 and over time added keys in order to “play all the parts” of the music that he heard in his head. This is how Gweshe devised the 56-key Munyonga mbira that he plays. He is a true pioneer of Zimbabwean music, constantly expanding the boundaries of traditional Shona music. Whether playing mbira at a bira ceremony or leading a group playing electric guitars and marimba, the wisdom of his spirituality comes through. Gweshe formed The Boterekwa Dance Troupe 24 years ago, a dance troupe for children which is now recognized as one of Africa’s finest troupes and has toured through much of the world. He introduced Kore Kore dances throughout Zimbabwe. On his spiritual missions abroad, he has shared the stage with leaders of Christian, Hindu, Moslem, and Jewish faiths as well as with the spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dali Lama.

Jacques Johnson has studied dance since 1990 with Makeda Ebube Franchesska Berry, Yousseff Koumbassa, Ocheami, Won Idy-Paye. He has performed with Ocheami, Anzanga and Lora & Sukutai marimba groups. He has been teaching West African dance to children and adults since 1995.

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 the 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.

Joe Keefe has been a musician all his life and a serious drummer since he was a teenager. His first professional gig was at age 15. In the 60s, he was a jazz drummer and taught drum set lessons. In 1968, he began to study African music at UCLA and continued studying various styles of African, Cuban and Brazilian percussion for the next 25 years. He met Dumi in 1990 and they started Dandaro Marimba Band in Santa Cruz. He has been playing marimba and hosho ever since. Joe began studying karimba (nyunga nyunga) with Dumi in 1990. He has been playing since then and teaching for the last few years. He has also studied karimba with Musekiwa Chingodza. In 2000, he started Sadza, a Santa Cruz county band that plays Zimbabwean music on drums, karimba, mbira and marimbas. He has created several arrangements for Sadza that feature mbira and karimba with marimbas.

MyLinda King played with Boka Marimba between 1989 and 1998. She has studied with Ephat Mujuru, Dumi Maraire, and Mai Chi Maraire. For the last eleven years she has been teaching group marimba and hosho 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.

Marilyn Kolodziejczyk has been studying Zimbabwean music since 1993. She plays marimba, mbira, ngoma and especially enjoys singing and hosho. Her teachers include Cosmas Magaya, Ambuya Beauler Dyoko, Musekiwa Chingodza, Tute Chigamba, Julia Chigamba, Mai Chi Maraire and Dr. Dumisani Maraire, along with many others, both Zimbabwean and North American. She has performed with Shumba Marimba and various Kutsinhira marimba ensembles, and currently performs with Kudana Marimba and Vakasara Mbira Group. She has often played hosho in public performances with Zimbabwean musicians Cosmas Magaya, Beauler Dyoko, and Musekiwa Chingodza. She and her family (Mark and Bud Cohen) traveled to Zimbabwe in 1997, and they have entertained many Zimbabwean guests at their home in Eugene, Oregon. Marilyn also serves as Zimbabwe Liaison for the Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center in Eugene.

Tendekai Kuture is a music lecturer at Mutare Teacher’s College as well as a visiting music lecturer at Africa University in Mutare. He is currently studying at the University of Idaho for a Masters in Music. Tendekai studied with Dumi Maraire since 1965. He has been teaching mbira, marimba, singing, dancing, drumming and hosho playing for twenty eight years, in several African countries, several European countries, Canada and the US.

Forward Kwenda — Master musician Forward Kwenda is known as a musical phenomenon in Zimbabwe, and “the Coltrane of mbira” in international circles. A musical prodigy, he began recording shortly after teaching himself to play mbira as a child. His soulful, virtuoso performances include amazing improvisation considered a “more ancient” style in Zimbabwe, where he is known for performing solo at ceremonies where two or three musicians are normally required, and bringing spirits with the first song he plays. Kwenda’s U.S. tours with Erica Azim have been enthusiastically received, as well as their “Svikiro: Meditations of an Mbira Master” CD on the Shanachie label.

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 are in the group Hungwe, and have released the CD entitled “Tsunga.” She has been teaching hosho, singing, chipendani, mbira and marimba to all ages for nine years.

Russ Landers loves singing, playing Shona mbira, chipendani, and Irish pennywhistle. On extended stays in Zimbabwe since 1983 he’s been guided and inspired by many musicians beginning with Ephat Mujuru, Mondreck Muchena, Tute Chigamba and his family, and Frank Gomba. Russ plays with Julia Chigamba and Chinyakare, teaches Zimbabwean music to young people in Oakland, California, and heads the Chipendani Project: preserving, reviving and promoting traditional culture.

Joel Lindstrom has been playing marimba and nyunga-nyunga since 1991. In 1993, he started playing the mbira dzavadzimu. He has studied with Maggie Donahue, Don Addison, and Cosmas Magaya, among other teachers. Joel has been teaching at the Kutsinhira Center in Eugene, Oregon, since 1994. He is particularly interested in teaching about the interrelationship of kutsinhira and kushaura and relating all parts to the beat. He focuses on teaching an ensemble of marimba players to play like an mbira ensemble — to develop variations and transition among the variations, not necessarily in response to a set cue, but rather to the gestalt of the music. He is a member of the mbira group Vakasara.

Cosmas Magaya is an internationally recognized mbira player and teacher and is the leader of the ensemble Mhuri yekwa Magaya. He has 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 U.S. 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 life as he grew up. His parents were married in the Roman Catholic Church, and his father was a renowned n’anga, or traditional healer, as well as a cultural expert whose advice was sought by people from all walks of life.

Zivanai Masango has been a musician from as early as he can remember and he began playing marimba at the age of 10. He taught music at Prince Edward school in Harare with teachers such as Musekiwa Chingodza and Nicholas Manomano in 1998. He toured Zimbabwe, Europe and America from 2000 through 2004 with Thomas Mapfumo as a keyboardist, trumpet player and guitarist. He also has worked with Chris Berry and Panjea, Tanga Wekwa Sando (a township jazz artist from Zimbabwe) and countless other bands in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He has also produced his own live production called Musatisiye, which tells a history of Zimbabwe through song. It premiered on Where’s The One’s African Music series in New York City in May. He has come to be one of Zimbabwe’s most respected studio engineers and music producers, having produced and recorded some of the best selling albums of all time in Zimbabwe and elsewhere, including Chris Berry’s all acoustic album Hold On. He is currently teaching African Guitar at Tribal Soundz in New York City and doing workshops in and around New York.

Randy McIntosh is the 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 University of Colorado 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 the University and high school level as well as directed a world music ensemble. He is currently directing Kutandara, and co-directing the Shamwari Youth Marimba Ensemble and Kutandara Student Marimba Ensemble.

Ilana Moon has been playing and performing Zimbabwean music and dance for five years. She played with Amani Marimba from Hornby Island for five years, and with various West African drum ensembles. She began studying African dance at the age of twelve after already being immersed in ballet, jazz and modern. Ilana has toured with Julia Chigamba, master dancer from Zimbabwe, performing and teaching in schools along the west coast. Ilana also produces the Sacred Stage series, bringing together musicians and dancers who are sharing their culture and traditions from around the world. Ilana is currently teaching African dance and Afro-belly in Victoria and Saltspring Island, and performs with Garadziva Chigamba and Kokanai Mzite in Jambanja Marimba.

Lucky Moyo 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. 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. Lucky performed and taught at Zimfest in 1997, 2001 and 2002.

Fradreck Mujuru — Zimbabwean Fradreck Mujuru is a talented mbira player, mbira maker, and mbira teacher. Fradreck is descended from a long line of mbira players and mbira makers in the Mujuru family (including his grandfather Muchatera and cousin Ephat), and is a shining talent in his own right. Fradreck lives in Harare and Dewedzo, Zimbabwe, and has performed in Zimbabwe, Europe, South Africa and the U.S.

Fungai “Zhanje” Mujuru was performing mbira with his family in ceremonies at the age of seven. Now he is the “mbira elder” of the Mujuru family. He provides instruction on mbira playing and tradition to the many Mujuru family mbira players, ranging from children up to mature performers like his nephew Fradreck. He is also a wonderful dancer! Fungai has performed throughout Zimbabwe, and internationally, but this is his first visit to the U.S.

Tom Scott has studied marimba for twelve years, with Maggie Donahue, Michael Breez, Farai Gezi, Dumi Maraire, and Stephen Golovnin. He has performed for ten years with Hearing Voices. He is good at working with kids and adults who tend to feel intimidated. He says, “I am very good at creating a fun, positive learning experience. I am a teacher by profession and can accommodate many different learning styles. Everyone is successful in my workshops.”

Peter Swing has been teaching marimba for ten years. He has studied with Dumi Maraire, Mai Chi, Ephat Mujuru, and Chris Berry as well as Tute & Irene Chigamba, Savannah Jammin’, Cosmas Magaya, Beauler Dyoko, and Thomas Mapfumo. Peter has played in Boka Marimba, Jaka, Trillium and directed the group Tatenda for many years. He’s also taught at Camp Tumbuka for four years.

Michel and Rosa Tyabji operate Limitless Sky Records in Seattle.

Wanda Walker has taught marimba at the Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center in Eugene, Oregon for several years. She has studied marimba with Maggie Donahue and Gary Goldwater, studied mbira with Cosmas Magaya, Musekiwa Chingodza and Stephen Golovnin, and studied Shona-style singing with Jennifer Kyker, Musekiwa Chingodza and Ambuya Beauler Dyoko, among others. Wanda has performed with Jenaguru for over seven years, and with Zambuko for five years. She also teaches private workshops in Shona and Ndebele singing.

Loveness Wesa was a singer, dancer, actor and choreographer with the Amakhosi Theatre in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe for 13 years. She has taught dance and singing in schools in Zimbabwe and Oregon for ten years. She will be sharing her knowledge and experience of Ndebele song and dance at the festival.

Ted Wright has taught gumboot dancing and marimba since 1996, and mbira since 1995. He also plays the chipendani. His teachers have included Michael Breez, Farai Gezi, Chris Berry, Cosmas Magaya, Forward Kwenda, Newton Gwara, Tute, Irene, Julia and Garadziva Chigamba and many others. He performed with Marimba Muzuva for eleven years, and has also performed with world beat improv ensemble Spirit Gate, mbira quartet Choto, and Zimbabwean roots dance band Zimfusion. He studied in Zimbabwe from December 2003 through March 2004, and has also recorded CDs for Garadziva Chigamba, Sydney Maratu, Amani Marimba and Simukai.
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