Janis Weeks is a biology professor. Marilyn Mohr, a technician with UO Libraries.

And together, they make beautiful music.

Weeks and Mohr play the “mbira dzavadzimu,” an African musical instrument that consists of a wooden board to which staggered metal keys have been attached.

The two friends learned to play the instrument through Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center, a Eugene nonprofit organization dedicated to studying and sharing the music of Zimbabwe. Their teacher was Cosmas Magaya, a Zimbabwean musician who teaches and performs in the U.S., Canada and Zimbabwe, spending part of every year in each area of the world.

There are two parts to playing the mbira, Weeks said – the “kushaura,” or “lead,” and the “kutsinhira,” or “follow.”

“The fundamental music is two parts playing against each other – new rhythms and melodies emerge,” Weeks said. “One reason our music center is called ‘Kutsinhira’ is that we’re following a note struck in Zimbabwe.”

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-- by Matt Cooper, UO Office of Strategic Communications