Contact: Maria Williams, 277-2282 Media Contact: Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 277-5915

Feb. 12, 2003 QUEEN OF ZIMBABWEAN MUSIC TO LECTURE AND PERFORM AT UNM Internationally recognized Zimbabwean musician Stella Chiweshe will give a free lecture and performance at the University of New Mexico on Tuesday, Feb. 18, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts, rm. B-017. Widely known as "the mbira queen of Zimbabwe," Chiweshe is the first female artist to gain prestige as a performer of the mbira, an instrument at the backbone of Zimbabwean music, and to be honored for participating in this music tradition historically dominated by males. She is among a handful of female musicians in Zimbabwe and South Africa who specialize in the genre. Chiweshe dealt with the former Rhodesian apartheid system and was part of the independence movement that created Zimbabwe. "The colonial government banned the mbira. Musicians performing the mbira were imprisoned. Stella Chiweshe played anyway and went underground. Independence came in the late 1970's and she was able to perform and record in public," said Maria Williams, associate director for the UNM Arts of the Americas Institute. Chiweshe is a former member of the National Dance Company and is also an actress. She has toured Europe regularly since 1983. For more information, call the UNM Arts of the Americas Institute, 277-2286. ###

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