Tendai Muparutsa

Tendai Muparutsa is a trained schoolteacher from Mutare Teachers’ College and has taught in both rural and urban elementary schools in Zimbabwe. His talents and abilities promoted him to music lecturer at Marymount Teachers’ College in 2002. He graduated with a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Zimbabwe in 2004. After completing his studies at the University of Zimbabwe in 2005, he went on to teach at Midlands State University in Gweru, Zimbabwe, and also directed the marimba ensemble, dance troop, and the university choir. In 2008, Tendai completed the Master of Music Education at the University of Idaho. He is currently a PhD student in ethnomusicology at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Tendai plays traditional instruments from Zimbabwe such as mbira dzavadzimu and nyunga nyunga, marimba, ngoma, and hosho; he is a choral musician, guitarist, singer, and dancer. His musicianship has seen him teaching and performing at various camps in North America, including Camp Mabina, Zimfest, Albuquerque Folk Festival, Nhemamusasa North, folk festivals in Seattle and Spokane, Washington, and in other small gatherings dotted around the Pacific Northwest. Tendai Muparutsa is a widely traveled performer, music educator, ethnomusicologist, and bandleader. He has performed in southern Africa and North America, and with some of the leading groups in Zimbabwe as a session percussionist.

Tendai’s research work and interests are in the region of southern Africa, general music education, popular music, jazz history, music and gender, and African/African-American music collaborations in diasporas. He is currently working on a publication in curriculum issues aimed at the music education innovations in Zimbabwe.

Check out some video:

http://youtu.be/jOKaYlDNP68

http://youtu.be/jOKaYlDNP68