Dr. Wilson O. Shitandi is Director of Post-Graduate Studies at Kabarak University, and senior lecturer in the School of Music and Performing Arts. He supervises Masters and Doctoral students' exams and defenses across the university; he also teaches courses in ethnomusicology and African music, including traditional dance, instrumental, and vocal music, as well as courses in composition, harmony and counterpoint. He is a former DAAD Scholar, having undertaken research studies at the universities of Mainz and Hildesheim in Germany. He is an active choral conductor and is a strong advocate of community-based music making as a vehicle towards social change in Kenya. To this end, he and other music educators from universities in Kenya and the USA have initiated a project called Tunaweza Kimuziki –a music and cultural exchange project that aims to nurture and promote music talents through workshops, online learning, seminars, and performances. Dr. Shitandi has published in book chapters and peer reviewed journals with research interest in the areas of African music, ethnomusicology, musicology, hymnology, and choral music. In addition, he sings, composes, and arranges African indigenous and national songs, and Euro-American classical music, and he has earned an international reputation as an expert in Kenyan drumming and vocal music. Among his choral compositions are ten masses for mixed chorus in Kiswahili and English. He is the director of St. Cecilia Holy Cross Choir in Nairobi, a board member of MUZIKI for Africa and Utafiti Foundation, and a founding member of the Tunaweza Kimuziki initiative. Recently, Dr. Shitandi was appointed Dean of the Nairobi Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He is also a member of Society for Ethnomusicology, the College Music Society, the American Guild of Organists and Choral Directors, Pan African Musical Arts Education, International Council of Traditional Music, Historische Toenetrager Gesellschaft, and Nairobi Choral Music Society.
Dr. Shitandi has been involved in several projects in Kenya and internationally, including St. Cecelia choir of Holy Cross parish, Kenyatta University Department of Music and Dance, Muziki 4 Kenya, Tunaweza Kimuziki, and Utafiti Foundation. Click here for more information about these projects.
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Dr. Shitandi has many compositions, arrangements, and publications available. Click here for sample performances and an overview of available works.
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