Kusika and The Zambezi Marimba Band (Fall Concert)

Each Kusika and Zambezi Marimba Band performance has a theme or centers around a particular region or culture – this performance is no different. December’s performance is called M’Sembaa concept from the Su Su people of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Maliand Senegal. M’Sembameans passing down power and strength from one generation to another. However the subtext to this performance is why these artists feel compelled to devote their time to the study of performance and music from Africa and the African Diaspora. The themes run the spectrum of an opportunity for peace and personal happiness in ones daily rhythm, identity, new challenges, community, creativity, destiny, as well as the power of dance. The key though is that through the devotion to an art form and the community’s participation in its presentation help us all collectively achieve a personal and artist completion. Please join us as we take both journeys.

Kusika takes its name from the Shona people of Zimbabwe. “Kusika” means “to create.” Kusika is an ensemble dedicated to performing music, dance, and storytelling from Africa and the African Diaspora. The repertoire includes dance from classical, traditional, and contemporary social forms. Along with traditional dance and music, we also share in the art of storytelling, a medium through which history, culture, and traditions have been passed from generation to generation in African cultures.

The Zambezi Marimba Band plays marimba music from Zimbabwe and Ghana. “Marimba” comes from the Bantu languages of Central Africa where it means “the wood that sings.” African slaves recreated marimba once they arrived in the Americas beginning in the 1600’s. The Zambezi Marimba Band is the only group playing Zimbabwean marimbas on the East Coast. In 1998 the band acquired a set of Ghanaian marimbas, which are called gyil in the Dagara language of northern Ghana. the Zambezi Marimba Band has also developed a repertoire of traditional Mbira (finger xylophone) music.

These performances are made possible in part by the Lipp Family Fund for Performing Artists