Wilson Shitandi

Wilson Shitandi WILSON SHITANDI, Ph.D., served as director of post-graduate studies, senior lecturer and founding associate dean of the School of Music and Media (2015) at Kabarak University, Kenya, Africa.  He is currently an adjunct professor at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, USA, where he teaches choral masterworks.  As an active choral conductor, composer, arranger and ethnomusicologist, Professor Shitandi continues to be a strong advocate of community-based music projects that are positively influential on social changes in Kenya and around the world.

The result of this personal mission has led to his collaboration with music educators from several universities in Kenya and in the United States, and to the formation of an initiative called Tunaweza Kimuziki.  This project represents a musical and cultural exchange program that aims to nurture and promote individual musical talent by means of workshops, online learning, seminars and performances.

As a writer, Shitandi authored a book titled, Meaning in Music, Culture and Theology:  An Analysis of Legio Maria Church Hymnody in Kenya.  He also co-authored a book titled, Interpreting and Appropriating Choral Music: Echoes of African Scholars, and was a co-author to a chapter in the Cambridge Companion to Choral Music titled, “Choral Music in Africa: History, Content and Performance Practice."