Tunde Jegede (b. 1972), Composer of Nigerian Descent

Tunde Jegede is a highly successful composer of Nigerian descent who was born in 1972 and lives in the U.K. He writes and performs both classical and contemporary music, and plays the kora. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is just one of numerous orchestras which have commissioned him to compose works.

For an overview of his wide-ranging career, we turn to the opening paragraph of TundeJegede.com, where much more information on his compositions, performances and recordings is available:

“Welcome to the official homepage of Tunde Jegede. Tunde Jegede is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who is uniquely placed between the worlds of Contemporary Classical, African and Popular music. He is a prolific Producer/Song writer and has worked across several genres both as a performer (Cello, Kora, Piano and Percussion) and producer. This site contains Biographies, List of works, Videos, free downloads, information on his forthcoming album Nomad out later this year and much more.”

Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma is principal advisor to AfriClassical.com, the web companion to AfriClassical. He has generously provided his research file on Tunde Jegede for this post:

“A resident in Britain of Nigerian descent, Jegede studied the cello at the Purcell School of Music with Alfia Bekova, Elma de Bruyne, and Joan Dickson, and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Rafael Wallfisch. He was introduced to the kora by Bouly Cissokho, his first teacher of the instrument. When 10, he studied with the griot, Amadu Bansang Jobarteh. He began performing professionally at age 12, beginning his work as composer two years later. With his African Classical Music Ensemble, he has toured and been featured on broadcasts and telecasts, bringing attention to the classical music traditions of Africa, including a 1991 première at the South Bank Center in London, part of an Arts Council project. BBC2 produced a documentary, Sound stories, of his work.

He was appointed Innovations Composer in 1999 to the Eastern Orchestral Board. He has written for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Britten Sinfonia, the London Mozart Players, and the East of London Orchestra. In 2005 he went to Sénégal for research leading to his opera, Sundiata, composed in eight days.

He has recorded Trilok Gurtu’s Living magic for CMP, Orphy Robinson’s Tomorrow never comes for EMI, Caron Wheeler’s War of a beach goddess for EMI, Deepak Ram’s Flute for thought for M.E.L.T. in 2000, and River of sound by Michael O. Suillebhain and Donal Lunny for Virgin.