Zimba Marimba International Marimba Camp

What a weekend it's been working with lovely young musicians from Sweden, Norway, Iceland and England - and working alongside a wonderful teaching team of African cultural arts practitioners from Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa, Guinea, The Gambia, France and Sweden! I've returned to London with a thoroughly nourished soul after all the beautiful music and dancing!

The camp started off on Friday afternoon with a round of workshops, before we all gathered in the main concert hall for an evening of live music led by the workshops teachers. There was mbira music, sabar drumming, kora and of course, marimba.

The camp then continued on Saturday morning with a full two days of workshops. Below you can see a picture of where I was doing my teaching.

My shared office with Erik Noresson for the weekend

We had a lovely two days and worked with a total of 8 groups - ranging from young children to young adults. Below you can see a clip of one of the songs I taught to the group from Iceland.

One of the songs I taught was Silang Mabele - a folk song from Botswana.

On Sunday afternoon, all the student groups got to share some of what they had learnt over the weekend. The oldest group closed the concert with a lovely Mhande-rhythm song from Zimbabwe called Cheke. It's an mbira song arranged by Jacob Mafuleni for the marimba, and the song is about crossing the river. 

For more information about marimba workshops, camps and performances in Sweden, visit: www.zimbamarimbaband.com