FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2014
Wilson Shitandi
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Lecture Series and the Jacobs School Musicology Department Lecture Series present "Art as a Tool for Social Change in Kenya: Transforming Lives through Music" by Wilson Shitandi at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 7, in Ford-Crawford Hall at the Jacobs School.
Shitandi is a lecturer at Kenyatta University, Kenya, in the Department of Music and Dance, where he teaches courses in ethnomusicology and African music, including dance, traditional instrumental music and vocal music.
The event is free and open to the public.
Shitandi has earned an international reputation as an expert in classical drumming and Kenyan choral music. He is an active choral conductor and is a strong advocate of community-based music making as a vehicle for social change in and around Nairobi.
He has published articles in books and peer-reviewed journals with research interests in the areas of African music, ethnomusicology, musicology, hymnology and choral music.
Shitandi sings, composes and arranges African indigenous and national songs, and Euro-American classical music. Among his choral compositions are 10 masses for mixed chorus in Kiswahili and English.
His lecture "Art as a Tool for Social Change in Kenya" is part of a broader cultural exchange project (Tunaweza Kimuziki) between the United States and Kenya, which includes the choral group Taifa Mziki.
This work was partially funded by the IU Office of the Vice Provost of Research at Indiana University-Bloomington through the Collaborative Research and Creative Activity Funding Award, the IU Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Horizons of Knowledge Lecture Series and the Jacobs School of Music Lecture Series.