IMI Charting New Horizons with the
USA-Artists Exchange Program
Dr. Bibian
Kalinde appointed as Vice-President, Africa Affairs. Dr. Leon Burke to
lead efforts with a new Zambia National Youth Orchestra. Dr. Richard
Alston joins IMI Artists roster.
Dr. Bibian Kalinde, DMus., MMus., BAEd Music
The Intercultural Music Initiative (IMI) is very pleased to welcome Bibian Kalinde on board as Vice President – Africa Affairs. Dr. Kalinde will help coordinate IMI operations relating to its USA-Africa Artists Exchange
program and serve as IMI liaison as the organization continues to lend
some resources toward developing, guiding and shaping arts programming
and education policies around Africa. Towards this goal, Dr. Kalinde
will work in concert with IMI Program Director Dr. Wendy Hymes, IMI
Treasurer Mr. Hector Arocha (a USA Certified Internal Auditor), IMI
Board Chair Mr. Abdoulaye Sambou, IMI President and world-renowned
composer Dr. Fred Onovwerosuoke (“FredO”) through organization head
office at the Centene Center for Arts & Education here in Saint
Louis, Missouri, USA.
Dr. Kalinde and her beloved University of Zambia (UNZA) Choir.
At one of UNZA Choir's concerts, former
Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda (a known avid music lover), simply
couldn't resist joining in the performance!
Dr. Kalinde hails from Zambia, and is on faculty in the Department of
Music Education at the University of Zambia, Lusaka. Her credentials are
stellar, including accolades as Zambia's first female doctorate degree
holder in the field of music education. She received her Doctor of
Music degree from the University of Pretoria. South Africa, and since
then has written extensively on music education, with academic
papers presented at various international conferences including "Musical Globalization: Inferences from the Music of Diamond Platinum," "Fostering
Children’s Music in the Mother Tongue in Early Childhood Education,"
"Laying a Foundation for Optimal Outcomes in Early Childhood Education" (with
Dr. E. Musanka), to list just a few. Her current research focuses on
the role of African folklore themed musicals as a tool for
cognitive learning and early childhood education. An experienced choral
director and clinician, Dr. Kalinde is also the founding music director
of the University of Zambia Choir, and hopefully will
leverage her position to attract American choral directors to Zambia for
short-term artist residencies. She recently became involved in Africa Sings, an annual international choral festival event founded and mentored by the Intercultural Music Initiative.
Bibian at the awe-inspiring St. Louis Gateway Arch during a recent familiarization visit to the United States.
Bibian at her favorite Ethiopian cafe in Lusaka
Off the bat, Dr. Kalinde will be working with St. Louis orchestra
conductor, Maestro Leon Burke, to schedule auditions during the summer
of 2020 to recruit musicians to form the new Zambia National Youth
Orchestra. Next up would be to facilitate participation of American
music scholars and performers in the Pan African Society for Music
Education (PASMAE) conference in 2021. She will also be working
collaboratively with the IMI development staff to source international
funding to support the USA-Africa Artists Exchange projects. Bibian is a
mother of three adorable children - Gustav, Pascal and Rehema. Dr.
Kalinde can be reached by email at bibiz@imusici.net.
Dr. Leon Burke, III.
Dr. Burke III is Conductor and Music Director of the University City
Symphony Orchestra in St. Louis, Missouri, and also serves as Principal
Conductor for the Belleville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Assistant
Director of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus and often guest-conducts for
the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. A native St. Louisan, Dr. Leon Burke
holds music degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of
Kansas. He has conducted at the Aspen Music Festival and the Shenandoah
Valley Music Festival and has studied with such distinguished conductors
as Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Slatkin, Edo de Waart, and Jorge Mester.
This year Dr. Burke celebrates 30 years as a Principal Conductor for the
Asunción Symphony and celebrations in Paraguay and St. Louis, Missouri
are planned. Maestro Burke's collaboration with the IMI dates back to
the year 2000 when he conducted his University City Symphony Orchestra
and mass choir from Webster University, Harris-Stowe University Choir,
and erstwhile St. Louis African Chorus in the US Premiere of Akin Euba's
opera, Chaka: An Opera in Two Chants. Since then Maestro Burke
has premiered numerous orchestra works by leading black composers of
classical music, including Fred Onovwerosuoke's Suite No. 4 for Orchestra ("Nketia Suite"), and Nkeiru Okoye's Harriet Tubman, and
others. In 2020 through 2021 Dr. Burke will be working collaboratively
with new IMI Vice President - Africa Affairs Dr. Bibian Kalinde, the
British Council, and a variety of agencies to schedule auditions for
musicians into the new Zambia National Youth Orchestra. This engagement
in Zambia will be Maestro Burke's first excursion into Africa under the
auspices of the USA-Africa Artists Exchange.
IMI Artists welcomes pianist Richard Alston to its roster
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