Walter Jesse Kitundu (born July 3, 1973) is a
musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...
builder,
graphic artist
A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming l ...
, and
musical composer from
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
.
Biography
Kitundu was born in
Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester is a city in Olmsted County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. It is located along rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a popul ...
and spent his early years in
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
. He returned to Minnesota from age 8 to 25, then moved to the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
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
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...
'', 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.[
]
References
External links
kitundu.com
- professional website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitundu, Walter
American male composers
21st-century American composers
Inventors of musical instruments
Living people
MacArthur Fellows
Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area
Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area
People from Rochester, Minnesota
1973 births
21st-century American male musicians