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Millicent Dube, Showbiz Reporter

It was a marvellous night experiencing the intercultural musical encounter between mbira artiste Hope Masike and Andreas Kern, a pianist from Germany.

The Zimbabwe Academy of Music in Bulawayo was the venue to be last Friday at an event simply dubbed “Piano meets Mbira” as quite a number of people came to support the two acts.

Various pieces were played out and each artiste had a moment to shine. The two also presented some pieces together which were electric. One of the pieces they performed was a common church hymn featuring Akin Tatenda Chariga, an opera singer. Akin, a rising talent won the Hear me Zimbabwe singing competition’s season 3 episode 2.

Speaking after her performance, Hope Masike was very excited about how things unfolded saying it was a very great experience.

“This was one of the hardest, but the most excellent duo as we only started rehearsals on Monday. It was our first-time meeting. This collaboration was good in that it gave me an opportunity to showcase that the Mbira is as traditional as it can be diffused with modern music and other modern instruments.

“Combining mbira and piano shows that as people, we can put aside our differences and bring out something good to listen to,” said Masike.

She said once in a while when she is not busy, she teaches people how to play the mbira and has gone the extra mile to introduce its sound to various genres.

“I’ve introduced mbira to other sounds and have fused it with hip-hop and gospel.”

Kern said working with Masike was nice and quiet challenging due to the difference in instruments, but he found the experience enlightening.

 “I really enjoyed every piece that was played. Hope’s piece Shwashwa was my favourite. Working with Hope was really nice, but very hard. For instance, her pieces have seven to twelve beats or more and for me, that was very challenging, but I was willing to learn.

“The night turned out amazing, the poets, dancers, and their singers were all amazing,” Kern said.

The pianist who is visiting Zimbabwe for the first time said he is enjoying his stay in the country thus far.

“Zimbabwe is actually nicer than I thought and I can say, the mbira is quite underrated. I can’t wait to see more of what Zimbabwe has to offer,” he said.

 The two artistes are set to share the stage again today at the Zimbabwe German Society in Harare.

By hosting these concerts, organisers, the German Embassy want to celebrate cultural diversity and attract a wider and younger audience by exploring new performance formats. And indeed, it was mission complete in Bulawayo as the event attracted a lot of youngsters.

“The idea for this intercultural encounter was born more than a year ago, but due to the travel restrictions caused by the Covid pandemic, the project had to be delayed,” the German Embassy said.