Name Walter Kitundu Role Music composer | Awards MacArthur Fellowship | |
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Krys bobrowski plays the kelp horn feat walter kitundu
Walter Jesse Kitundu (born July 3, 1973) is a musical instrument builder, graphic artist, and musical composer from San Francisco, California.
Contents
- Krys bobrowski plays the kelp horn feat walter kitundu
- Tracing the building walter kitundu
- Biography
- Career and Works
- Awards
- References
Tracing the building walter kitundu
Biography
Kitundu was born in Rochester, Minnesota and spent his early years in Tanzania. He returned to Minnesota from age 8 to 25, then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in approximately 1998. He currently lives in Chicago.
Career and Works
Described as a renaissance man, Kitundu is inventor of the "phonoharp", a stringed instrument incorporating a phonograph. After hearing the instrument, the Kronos Quartet hired Kitundu as their "instrument builder in residence". In addition to a phonoharp he also built a "phonoharp" for each of the quartet's members. For the song "Tèw semagn hagèré" on their 2009 album Floodplain, he created new instruments inspired by the begena, an Ethiopian 10-string lyre.
As of 2008 Kitundu is a "Multimedia Artist" with the Exploratorium, artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, and a Distinguished visiting professor of "Wood Arts" at the California College of the Arts.
Kitundu is also a wildlife photographer, with a specialty in hawks and other raptors.
Awards
In September 2008, Kitundu won a MacArthur fellowship.