A Prodigy's Calling: The Early Musical Biography of Cosmas Magaya, Zimbabwean Mbira Master

The coming-of-age story of a master musician in mid-twentieth century colonial Rhodesia as he learns his community's most cherished art, all while navigating profound social transformation.

Ethnomusicologist Paul F. Berliner has been studying Zimbabwean mbira for more than fifty years. When he first arrived in what was then Rhodesia after the nation declared independence from the United Kingdom, he met Cosmas Magaya, a mbira player who would become his teacher and lifelong collaborator. A...