WOMAD

Risenga Makondo

From South Africa

Risenga was born in the rural north of South Africa and has lived in Europe since 1988, where he studied visual and performing arts and music therapy. He is a talented and versatile percussionist and dancer who has performed around the world with artists as diverse as Amampondo, Alan Skidmore, Madosini and Benjamin Zephaniah. His own music and dance companies have performed in theatres throughout the UK and at the Edinburgh Festival, where ‘Jo’burg Streets’, a fusion of South African marimba music and contemporary British dance sounds, was featured on BBC 2 ‘Edinburgh Nights’.His musical talents have also entertained Nelson Mandela at his 80th birthday celebrations. He was also part of the welcoming performance for Miriam Makeba at the Royal Festival Hall, London and performed for the Five Nations Rugby Tour in South Africa. An inventive and innovative musician, Risenga plays a dazzling array of traditional African instruments including, drums, toned percussion, marimba, berimbau, mbira, horns and flutes which he collects on his travels. In addition he creates music from various objects he comes across, such as a piece of plastic pipe or an oil can, drawing on any inherent musicality they may produce. He is renowned for his open-minded approach to music and interest in musical collaboration. His enduring interests as a performing artist are how music develops as it is adopted by different cultures and the challenge of maintaining a coherent musical diversity within that development.