Music graduate student Caden Davis wins award to research mbira dzavadzimu in Zimbabwe
Caden Davis, a second-year graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in Music Education, was recently awarded the WWU Graduate Research and Creative Opportunities Grant to support his research project, "Rhythmic Conversations: An Exploration of Improvisational Interactions between Kushaura and Kutsinhira Players in the Music of the Zimbabwean Mbira Dzavadzimu."
In June 2026, Caden will travel to the rural region of Mhondoro, near Harare, Zimbabwe, where he will record, observe, and analyze musical practices associated with the mbira dzavadzimu. His research focuses on systems of improvisation within localized playing styles, with particular attention to the dynamic interplay between kushaura and kutsinhira parts.
Caden will work in collaboration with the Magaya family—continuing a lineage of study that extends from Paul Berliner’s work with the late Cosmas Magaya. Through this project, Caden aims to develop new perspectives on mbira music and deepen understanding of its musical language.
Caden Davis is a graduate student at Western Washington University, as well as the director of the Bellingham Community Marimba Project. Davis is a founding member of Pamwe Marimba: a nationally-touring marimba ensemble specializing in a fusion of traditional and contemporary Zimbabwean music as well as their own compositions. In Pamwe, he plays marimba, guitar, trumpet, and mbira.
Davis was also a member of the nationally-touring marimba band Polyphony Marimba (based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico) with which he appeared in over 90 performances nation-wide over the course of two seven-week tours in 2021 and 2023. This included performances in New York City (Washington Square Park; Union Square), Chicago, Washington D.C., and St. Louis.
