Stella Chiweshe

Mbira Musician and Musical Icon

Stella Chiweshe is a popular Zimbawean musical icon who has traveled and performed her music in numerous international venues and stages. Her music is of the popular traditional musical instrument, the mbira or the thumb piano genre. Stella has said that the first time she heard the sound of mbira play she was so captivated by the sound that she was determined to learn to play.

Stella is one of the few female players of the instrument which she studied to play in the years between 1966 and 1969. During her early musical career it was culturally unacceptable for a women to play the mbira, but Stella’s determination to play drove her to defy the custom and to break the barrier.

Her career kicked off in 1970 when she started playing in spiritual ceremonies and risked imprisonment as the ceremonies were forbidden by the then Rhodesian government. She released her first single Kasahwa with Teal Record Company and it went gold. The Earthquake is the name of her group which she founded and started in 1979. They have recorded many singles, albums and performed around the globe over the years.

Her daughter Virginia Mukwesha is also a mbira musician, she started palying when she was only twelve and they have performed together. Stella is a resident of Germany where she lives with her husband who also happens to be a German national.