Kutsinhira Update

Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center
Dedicated to the Music and People of Zimbabwe
Fall 2009 Newsletter
Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center, PO Box 26111, Eugene, Oregon 97402 USA www.kutsinhira.org/kutsinhira.php
Kutsinhira Update
Lynne Swift
We’ve just learned that Oregon State University
in Corvallis will host the 2010 Zimfest! A Zimfest this
close to home will make it easy to get involved with
planning and production, such a great way to do something worthwhile and interesting with friends in the music
community. From my personal experience, it’s fun, gratifying and an opportunity to be part of a very exciting
event. Stay tuned for more news (www.zimfest.org) and
ways you can be involved.
students in the equivalent of a very high quality graduate
seminar in which the teacher was willing to share her
thoughts and feelings in addition to her knowledge. The
18 campers felt privileged and honored to spend this
time with Patience. In the words of one camper, “The
quality of the camp was very high. I have new songs,
new friends, and new very fond memories.”
This workshop was made possible in part through support by a Lane County Tourism Special Projects Grant.
One of the most exciting musical opportunities to
come to Kutsinhira is the opportunity to study with Jennifer Kyker while she is living in Eugene. If you want to
deepen your marimba playing, your singing, dancing,
mbira and hosho playing, and most of all your sensibilities about this music, I encourage you to take advantage
of this opportunity. Maggie Donahue has written an interesting biographical article in this newsletter about the
15-year-old Jennifer who traveled to Zimbabwe by herself and is now, 15 years later, completing a doctoral
dissertation on Oliver Mtukudzi, one of Zimbabwe’s most
well known contemporary musicians. It’s great to have
Jennifer back living in our community for a while, and we
appreciate the extraordinary gift of music she is sharing
with us.
SAVE THE DATE!
Camp PaNyanza
Lynne Swift
Kutsinhira’s 4-day summer mbira camp on the
Oregon coast with Patience Chaitezvi was infused with
water themes-- the lovely setting an inland lake at the
Oregon coast, Patience’s fascinating stories of mermaids and their meaning in Shona culture, the featured
mbira song, Chigwaya (a bream)…to name a few.
The mornings began with a tasty breakfast prepared by Marilyn Mohr, camp food czarina (a welldeserved title earned in previous camps), and enjoyed
on the deck watching the mist rise from the lake. The
days were spent with Patience and teaching assistant
Marian Grebanier learning mbira songs, dancing on the
deck, singing, and drumming (thanks to Rosalie BrownLundh who brought enough drums for everyone).
Each night after dinner, superbly prepared by
Marilyn and her kitchen helpers, Patience spoke in depth
about the many facets of Shona spirituality, offered insights into modern life and culture in Zimbabwe and
shared personal experiences that touched us deeply.
After 3 such evenings, many of us felt that we had been
Kutsinhira Annual Meeting and Party
Saturday, March 6, 2010 @ Guy Lee Elementary School
Special Guest Musekiwa Chingodza!
MUSIC & MORE AT THE CENTER
Gary Spalter
Be sure to stop in at the center to see the new tshirts (new colors and long sleeves!) and all the CDs we
have for sale. Several new CDs are available from our
friends who passed through Eugene this year. Patience
Chaitezvi plays mbira with her brother on a CD that includes Marenje, Mbavarira, Taireva and Chipembere.
Musekiwa Chingodza and Jennifer Kyker team up
again as Hungwe on another beautiful album with powerful singing and mbira playing. Local mbira group Vakasara (Bud Cohen, Jerome Hobbs, Marilyn Kolodziejczyk, Joel Lindstrom, and Marilyn Mohr) has recorded a CD with all proceeds going directly to Kutsinhira’s Zimbabwean Community Development Project.
Jennifer Kyker produced a field recording in Zimbabwe
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of the mesmerizing and haunting sound of the chipendani played by Sekuru Muradzikwa. Two compilation
CDs were produced this year as a fundraiser for Ancient
Ways efforts in Zimbabwe, specifically in the Magaya
and Mujuru villages. The marimba and electric music CD
features songs by 11 groups including Boka, Ruzivo
and Nyamuziwa. The mbira and acoustic music CD features Cosmas Magaya, Paul Prince and Beauler
Dyoko, Pachi Pamwe and many others. All CDs cost
$15 for members and $18 for non-members and can
also be purchased online at http://kutsinhira.org.
An exciting development in its early stages is a
new CD recording project organized by Jake Roberts
and Gary Spalter. The plan is to record each performing
group at Kutsinhira to create a Kutsinhira –wide representation of the music we play. Jake and Gary are working with Thaddeus of Sprout City Studios to arrange for
studio recording time. Stay tuned to hear how your group
can be involved.
Zim Guest Report
Marilyn Kolodziejczyk
Even though we did not officially sponsor a Zimbabwean guest in 2009, Kutsinhira enthusiastically
hosted quite a few!
Beginning in early June, the four members of
Mbira dze Muninga spent a few days with us and, along
with Kudana Marimba, put on a very successful concert
at Cozmic Pizza. We were happy to see these friends
whom we had met in 2008 and especially enjoyed their
“elder,” Micah Munhemo, who has gone from being
rather shy in 2008 to revealing a sparkling stage presence in 2009.
At Zimfest, many of us enjoyed seeing these
four musicians again as well as other musicians who
would be our guests later in the summer. After many
visa hassles, Bongo Love joined us in the midst of Zimfest. They came straight from their 28-hour international
flight. We later enjoyed Bongo Love’s music and company as headliners at the Oregon Country Fair.
One of the most popular performers at the Boulder Zimfest was Matemai (aka Newton Gwara), and we
welcomed Matemai Mbira Group to spend a week with
us in Eugene in late July. I was personally knocked out
of my flip-flops by Matemai’s gorgeous singing. He and
his protégé Simboti, with invaluable help from Jennifer
Kyker on hosho, put on a dynamite concert at Cozmic
Pizza (also very well attended – thanks Kutsinhira!).
They taught some marimba and mbira both privately and
in Joel’s class, but I thought that their singing class was
a real high point. Matemai’s take on “orchestra” style
mbira was also well received. We really hope to see
Matemai and his group here again.
Gary Spalter and friends put on a rockin’ house
party for Bongo Love as they traveled south through
Eugene in August – thanks as always to Alex, Jake and
Michael for the great sound work they do to make all
these gigs (especially at Cozmic) possible!
Just one day later the delightful Patience
Chaitezvi arrived to spend two weeks with us. Patience
gave us a wonderful concert (again with Jennifer K., this
time on mbira), and she taught mbira both in Eugene
and at Camp paNyanza with quiet expertise and dedication. Her cultural and language presentations were
among the best we have yet experienced, and we are
seriously considering formal visa sponsorship for Patience in 2011. Thanks to Maggie Donahue for hosting
Patience at her home.
Now we are in the season of planning for 2010,
and visa petitions. We are expecting our beloved Musekiwa Chingodza to arrive here around March 1, in time
to attend the Kutsinhira annual membership meeting,
and for our senior teachers Cosmas Magaya and
Beauler Dyoko to arrive in late August. Kutsinhira will
officially sponsor all three of these guests.
Thanks for the support many of you have provided to these visitors; I encourage those of you who
have not yet taken an active role in experiencing what
our Zimbabwean guests have to offer to do so in the future – you will find it very rewarding, both musically and
personally.
Education Report
Deb Olson
Several of the Kutsinhira classes that met over
the summer had wonderful workshops with visiting Zimbabwean teachers, Matemai & Simboti and Patience
Chaitezvi. The regular classes continuing fall term are 2
youth marimba classes, intermediate and advanced intermediate marimba, as well as the mbira class. A new
class for advanced beginning students will meet on
Wednesdays at 5:45, taught by Wanda Walker. A brand
new class for beginners will meet on Mondays at 5:45
(please contact Deborah Olson if you are interested!).
Kutsinhira is extremely fortunate to have Jennifer Kyker in the community this year. She will be consulting with all Kutsinhira classes to work with them on various areas to improve their playing.
Jennifer’s Friday night workshops:
There will be a series of four 2 hour workshops, each
one followed by an optional 2 hours of structured mbira
ensemble playing.
9/25 – Hosho for mbira
10/23 – Hosho for marimba
11/20 – Chipendani
12/18 – drum/dancing
The cost of the workshops is $15 each for Kutsinhira
members. The separate mbira playing is $5 if one
doesn’t attend the preceding workshop.
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RENEW MEMBERSHIP NOW!
Annual membership runs from September 1 to
August 31 which means now is the time to renew your
membership for fiscal year 2009-2010. Membership
rates remain the same at $30 for an individual or $50 for
a family. There are now several ways to renew your
membership -- 1) as a student, you can include it in your
fall term class payments, 2) you can pick up a form at
the center and leave payment and form in the drop-box
at the center, 3) go to
http://www.kutsinhira.org/wiki/index.php/About_Kutsinhir
a and pay by PayPal. If you’d like to be on the Kutsinhira
listserv and you are not currently receiving announcements from Kutsinhira, make sure we have your email
address by sending it to Marilyn at mkolo@q.com.
ZCDP AWARDS
Lynne Swift
This year, Kutsinhira’s Zimbabwean Community
Development Project made donations to four recipients:
Nhimbe for Progress (www.ancient-ways.org), Tariro
(www.tariro.org) and what we now term the "Mhondoro
Frontline Healthcare Group" -- an umbrella term encompassing St. Michael's Hospital, Rwizi Clinic and Chikara Clinic (the 2008 ZCDP recipients). The fourth project will provide school supplies to orphans in a secondary school in Chinhoyi.
Nhimbe for Progress, a project of Ancient
Ways, serves rural villages in Zimbabwe with a multitude
of educational, health and infrastructure support services
(wells, toilets, huts). Tariro provides educational support
and advocacy for orphaned girls in Zimbabwe whose
families have been affected by poverty, neglect and
HIV/AIDS. The Mhondoro Frontline Healthcare Group is
a term that reflects that these facilities constitute the first
line of defense against HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in the
region Mhondoro that they serve.
These are all projects that are close to us here
in Eugene. Nhimbe and Tariro are headed up by longtime Kutsinhira members, Jennifer Kyker and Jaiaen
Beck, respectively. Janis Weeks initiated contact with
and has continued a relationship with the Mhondoro
Frontline Healthcare Group. The project in Chinhoyi will
be managed by Patience Chaitezvi. These projects are
faced with incredibly challenging conditions and are
working hard to make life better for the communities they
serve.
Funds for the ZCDP are raised through music
gigs, donations and a percentage from the Kutsinhira
general fund. We are very happy that Kutsinhira is able
to contribute to the support of these projects.
Jennifer In Eugene
Maggie Donahue
When you listen to a North American marimba
band, what is it that conveys the depth and power of
authenticity rather than merely providing a pleasant musical experience? The essential elements are in the
rhythmic and melodic nuances that make up the musical
expressions of Zimbabwe. Kutsinhira
students have a rare opportunity this year to study with
Jennifer Kyker who
has a unique ability to convey the subtleties of African
rhythms to US
students.
As a child, Jennifer studied marimba at Kutsinhira and learned as much mbira from visiting teachers as
she could. At 15, she was the first one from the
Eugene community to travel to Zimbabwe. During that
first visit she became
close friends with a 13-year-old girl named Blantina.
Blantina taught
Jennifer to speak Shona by labeling every object and
writing its name in the
dirt with a stick. This was a friendship that deeply affected Jennifer
and ultimately lead her to found Tariro, a 501©3 nonprofit that pays school fees for young women and girls
who have lost parents to HIV/AIDS and poverty. Her fluency with Shona language is a key to her ability to impart the rhythms and tonal qualities necessary to gain
mastery of marimba, mbira, singing, hosho or dance.
After graduating from Mount Holyoke College in
2002, Jennifer received a Fulbright Fellowship and returned to Zimbabwe to study for another year. During
that and subsequent visits she studied traditional music
and dance with a variety of Zimbabwean artists. She
also had many opportunities to perform with well -known
artists there including Tute Chigamba and Mhembero
and Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited. Her
collaboration with Musekiwa Chingodza resulted not only
in two beautiful recordings, “Tsunga” and “Muronda
Tsimba”, but also in introducing Musekiwa to Kutsinhira.
Most recently Jennifer spent about 10 months in
Zimbabwe doing research for her doctoral degree in ethnomusicology. Evidence of her brilliance is that she
chose one of our favorite artists, Oliver Mtukudzi, as the
subject of her research. Between interviewing him and
attending his concerts, she worked intensively with the
staff of Tariro to solidify the administration of that organization. A particularly satisfying accomplishment was establishing a traditional arts program for some of the
girls in Tariro. “Maungira E Zimbabwe” is a compilation
of field recordings she put together, which highlights this
budding troupe. The traditional arts program has had the
additional effect of strengthening the connection
between Tariro and Hokoyo, Kutsinhira’s youth ensemble.
Over the years, Jennifer has come and gone
from Eugene where she grew up with her brother, Rob,
her mother, Pam, who passed away two years ago, her
father, Bill and stepmother, Kay. Since her teen years,
she has been part of Kudana’s family, giving Eugene
audiences an opportunity to watch her grow and mature
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into a dynamic musician and performer.
For now, Jennifer has set down roots in Eugene
and is offering an array of classes and workshops
through Kutsinhira as well as some private classes. Her
natural musicality, ear for detail and strong teaching
skills make her equally effective whether teaching Mbakumba dance at the WOW Hall, choral singing with Kupembera, or playing hosho to accompany mbira.
If a student is focused on marimba, mbira, or singing
taking any of Jennifer’s classes will deepen understanding of the art form by placing it within the rich cultural
context of Zimbabwe’s musical heritage. Jennifer
is offering Kutsinhira a wealth of experience. There is no
way to know how long Jennifer will be here. While we
have the opportunity to study with her, choose something new to study or go deeper into what you already
love.
See the listings of class offerings:
www.zvents.com/eugene-or/events/show/88426538traditional-zimbabwean-dance-with-jennifer-kyker
(email maggiedona@comcast.net if you’d like more info
about classes)
Visit these sites for more information about Jennifer’s
experiences and work
with Tariro (www.tariro.org) Tariro’s website.
(http://tarirohope.wordpress.com/) This is a new blog Jen
set up to keep people posted about Tariro. She writes
about her friendship with Blantina in more detail here.
Purchase CD’s at the Center or Swahili Imports in the
5th Street Market.
- “Tsunga” with Musekiwa Chingodza
- “Muronda Tsimba” with Musekiwa Chingodza
- “Maungira E Zimbabwe” compilation of field recordings
from Zimbabwe featuring Tariro’s traditional arts students.
- Sekuru Compound – field recordings of a chipendani master
ZIMFEST 2009
Jake Roberts
If I had to choose a word to describe Zimfest this
past summer, I think I'd choose unusual. Of the Zimfests
I have attended, most have followed a very similar tem-
plate--but not this year. The size of the venue, the registration system and the challenge of providing all the instruments for classes made this festival different. For
example, Zimfest usually takes place in a small, selfcontained conference center at a university. This year,
the workshop spaces, concert venue, marketplace, dorm
and cafeteria in Boulder were spread throughout more
than a square mile of Boulder's university district. It
made for a lot of walking! The registration system was
completely electronic, another change from previous
festivals. And, Boulder was too far from other hubs of
Zimbabwean music to justify moving sets of instruments
to the festival site. As a result, Boulder organized and
provided every marimba used at Zimfest. This was no
small feat considering more than ten complete sets of
marimbas were needed!
The concerts, held in the Boulder Theater, were
truly breathtaking. Extraordinary talent combined with an
energetic audience and beautifully executed showmanship on the part of the performers made for some of the
best concerts Zimfest has known. A Youth Showcase,
featuring Hokoyo and other youthful acts from around
the country, started off the festival. Later concerts featured artists familiar to the Zimfest stage, as well as new
additions, such as Matemai Mbira Ensemble who filled
the stage with rousing mbira and singing. Another defining feature of the concerts this year was the almost universal use of drum kits, which gave performers an especially energetic dance beat (although some may object
on grounds of authenticity). The festival concerts concluded with Chris Berry's behemoth marimba band that
literally filled every inch of the stage with marimbas,
saxophones, guitars, drums and vocalists.
The College Inn and Athens North, where most
participants stayed, offered spacious dorm rooms with
balconies and air conditioners (a big plus in Boulder's
climate), as well as spaces for workshops distributed
throughout the building. The dorms also provided a refuge from the dramatic afternoon thunderstorms that
drenched those caught outside without rain protection.
The marketplace was held in a beautiful grassy park by
the creek that runs through downtown Boulder. On Saturday the market was incorporated into Boulder's large
Saturday Market. Good food, crafts and produce, plus
Zimbabwean music- what more could you want?
Zimfest 2009 in Boulder demonstrated that Zimfest is not a cookie-cutter event that gets juggled around
to different locations but never changes. Instead, it’s an
event that evolves and transforms with the challenges of
each venue, thanks to the talent and dedication of the
Zimfest organizers.
- Editor: Lynne Swift
- Photos: Mandy Walker-LaFollette, Lynne Swift
- Contributors: Marilyn Kolodziejczyk, Deb Olson,
Maggie Donahue, Gary Spalter, Jake Roberts
- Website: Mandy Walker-LaFollette
- Technical Support: Jake Roberts
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