Chris Berry

Chris Berry is a master of both mbira (thumb piano) and the ngoma drum, from the Shona people of Southern Africa. He has earned the title of gwenyambira (“one whose music calls the spirits”), a distinction reserved only for those who have achieved the highest fusion of the technical and the magical in Shona music. His record sales have reached platinum album sales in Zimbabwe and Mozambique for his work with the band Panjea.

Grammy award winning Chris Berry is an eclectic singer and songwriter, multi-instrumentalist virtuoso, and highly energetic performer and teacher. From his humble beginning during Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe, he has blasted his powerful Afro-infused sound around the World for over twenty years; rocking audiences from NYC's Irving Plaza to sold out stadiums in South Africa and Sydney, Australia's famous Opera House. He has released over a dozen albums; scored the soundtrack for three films; and has been collaborating and performing with some of the World's best like Eminem, Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Senegalese Afro-Pop sensation Yousoou N'dour, Cuban Legends Los Munequitos de Mantanzas, Jazz artist Paul Winter, Jamaican rhythm and production duo Sly (Dunbar) and Robbie (Shakespeare), Fugee's producer Handel Tucker and many more.

Chris was born and raised in California where he began his apprenticeship with Master Drummer Titos Sompa (one of the founders of the African drum and dance scene on the West Cost of the U.S.) as a fifteen-year-old boy. This relationship led him into a ten-year journey to Africa. After originally arriving in Congo’s Brazzaville, his fascination of Zimbabwean mbira music eventually led him to Zimbabwe’s capital city Harare, where he settled and studied under mbira master Monderek Muchena for ten years. Eight of these years were spent in Zimbabwe during the Mugabe Regime. During this tumultuous political period, Chris found himself living in the ghettos and villages of Zimbabwe where he sought to study the music of the Shona people, adding to his growing repertoire of Traditional African Music. While studying in Zimbabwe, Berry became one of the first Westerners to be accepted among the elder mbira masters as one of their own. He became initiated by the village elders into their heritage and learned to speak their language fluently. Immersed in the culture of all-night Mbira Ceremonies, Chris found his voice singing among the polyrhythmic harmonies commonly found throughout Zimbabwe and most of South Africa. It was soon after that his musical career took off.

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