Musekiwa Chingodza

Musekiwa_chingodza

Sunday, April 04, 7:00 PM
Northampton Center for the Arts (Map)

Tickets: All sold at the door, $12 general/$10 student (cash or check).

Direct from Zimbabwe, musical virtuoso Musekiwa Chingodza brings the joyous and hypnotic music of his ancestors to the ballroom of the Northampton Center for the Arts on Sunday. Musekiwa will be performing pieces on the traditional instrument of his Shona culture, the mbira. Commonly known as a "thumb piano", the mbira's complex polyrhythmic and polyphonic patterns have a profound effect on listeners.
Born into a family of great musicians in Zimbabwe, Musekiwa began playing the mbira at the age of five. 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.”
While the peaceful, lulling cycles of mbira music have become a world music staple, the mbira remains an important medium for trance and spiritual awakening in traditional Zimbabwean culture. Whether played in small groups or in the setting of an entire gathered village, the music has the power to transport listeners across space and time.
Musekiwa will be accompanied by Bud Cohen. Bud has been enjoying, learning, and performing Zimbabwean music for over 15 years - since the age of 12. He has studied with Zimbabwean mbira and marimba masters both in Zimbabwe and in the U.S. He teaches marimba at Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center in Eugene, Oregon.
This is a rare opportunity to hear this beautiful, haunting music played by a Zimbabwean master.