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Chimedza reflects on mbira music

Life & Style
In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style, Chimedza said improvisation and entrepreneurship around the mbira instrument were some of the ways to bring relief from economic difficulties during the COVID-19 challenges.

BY TENDAI SAUTA MBIRA Centre founder Albert Chimedza said they would reopen in the first quarter of next year having temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style, Chimedza said improvisation and entrepreneurship around the mbira instrument were some of the ways to bring relief from economic difficulties during the COVID-19 challenges.

“We shut the workshop when the pandemic started in 2020.

“We are carrying out work to make all Mbira Centre workspaces compliant with COVID-19 regulations. We plan to restart production in the first quarter of 2022,” he said.

“In the midst of COVID-19 difficult times, we went ahead with the online festivals and continued to work on the formalisation of the Mbira Guild of Zimbabwe.”

An accomplished mbira player and manufacturer, Chimedza said artistes must think outside the box in this COVID-19 environment.

“COVID-19 is offering new challenges and opportunities.  It does not hurt to try some new thinking and ways of doing things,” he said.

“Collectively as Zimbabweans, with clarity of purpose and an entrepreneurial spirit in mbira practice, mbira can go far in the coming years.”

Chimedza said there would be more interaction between mbira and other music forms.

“More people from non-mbira music backgrounds will engage the instrument and, hopefully, bring in new music possibilities and dimensions to the instrument,” he said.

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