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Yeukai Karengezeka Arts Correspondent
Preparations for the inaugural mbira festival to be held at the Zimbabwe College of Music on September 27 are at an advanced stage.
The festival will be hosted by Tambarimba Arts in conjunction with the Zimbabwe College of Music.In an interview with The Herald Entertainment founder and director of Tambamarimba band Don Chidavaenzi said preparations are gathering momentum.
“Preparations are now at an advanced stage and we are promising a festival with high standards but in order to achieve our aim we are inviting a wide cross section of people to the festival,” he said.
Chidavaenzi said this edition will be for primary and secondary schools.
“This year we are only focusing on secondary and primary schools, to promote marimba genre to the country but coming events will also include other bands. “We want to restore the glory of marimba and I would safely say marimba is the career of culture,” he said.
The festival will run under the theme “Bringing Marimba to the Light” in a bid to attack drugs abuse, loose morals and will also promote cleanliness.
He said the aim of the festival is to have marimba appreciated by all Zimbabweans especially the youths.
“We are on a mission to identify, develop and showcase talent in marimba from grassroots to adults. The response from participants has been excellent and we have a number of corporates who have shown confidence in our vision and are supporting and partnering the festival,” said Chidavaenzi.
Although this is the first edition, we have a vision to grow it into an international marimba festival. Already some foreign marimba bands have shown an interest to participate in our 2015 festival.”
The Tambamarimba band went to South Africa early last month for the marimba festival but they did not do well.
“We did not do well in the marimba festival this year. We returned home empty handed, said Chidavaenzi.
The group has participated in many corporate events, HIFA 2013 and has also represented Zimbabwe at marimba festivals in South Africa several times.
Tambarimba Arts is an organisation that specialises in marimba music and the group was formed in 2011.
Online Reporter