Kilworth Memorial Chapel
1500 N 18th St, Tacoma, WA 98416
USA
“The music of the mbira is not what many people here might think of as traditional African music,” said organizer Gwynne Kuhner Brown, associate professor of music history and music theory at Puget Sound. “It has the complex rhythms we expect, but also beautiful harmonies and the unfamiliar sound of the instrument’s vibrating metal keys.”
At the concert Azim and Mujuru will play interlocking parts on their two mbiras—instruments with 22 to 28 metal keys mounted on a hardwood soundboard that sits inside a large gourd resonator. The two musicians also will sing.
Attendees will learn about the ancient culture of the Shona people of southern Africa and the role the mbira plays in religious ceremonies and social gatherings, such as weddings and the celebration of official holidays. In Shona traditional religion, all-night ceremonies are held in which the instrument is thought to aid people in communicating with ancestral spirits by putting tribal members in a trance. A musical repertoire of hundreds of pieces has been passed on from generation to generation.
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