Liyana USA Tour 2009

• home
• |
• contact us

• Home
• The Band
• Sponsors and Venues
• Media
• Learn from Liyana
• Getting Involved

Check On This Page or Surf The Web to Read Liyana Media

From the 2009 USA Tour

Voice of America	NJTV.com	BillBoard	NPR	Daily Record	NewZim
Jewish Week	WNYC News	NJ Star Ledger	PRI	Converge	Media Dis&Dat
Jewish Times	WCBS Radio	SF Chronicle	CNN	The Standard	Grammy.com

Daily Record
Parsippany, NJ
January 31, 2009

CLICK HERE TO HEAR

'CELEBRATION'
Composed by Prudence Mabhena and Marvelous Mabulo
Lead Singers of Liyana
To Honor the Election of Barack Obama
The Afro-Fusion Band, From Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

 

Inspirational Zimbabwe Band Brings US Audiences to Their Feet

Audio from Public Radio International and Voice of America:

©Lonny Shavelson
Photowords.com for
Public Radio International and Voice of America
February 10, 2009

"My hands are bent. They are not straight. And my legs were also the same," Prudence explains. My legs were amputated when she was 11 years old. "And apart from that, I'm beautiful. I am. And, so they say, I've got a cool smile," she says, flashing it. "I don't really know where my voice comes from. It's a gift I was given by God. I guess my voice sounds good to people, maybe it's because I also use it wisely," she adds with a laugh.

Star-Ledger on TVJersey - Liyana Spreads Special Needs Awareness through Music

Today I shot a video of an inspirational band called Liyana. When Prudence, the band's lead singer, was a baby some family members wanted to starve her to death ... Now she is traveling the world delivering a message of hope and inspiration.

http://blip.tv/file/1721083

John O'Boyle
Star Ledger on TV New Jersey
Friday, January 30, 2009

If Only You Could Dance ...

The band members met in a music class at King George VI school in Bulawayo, in Southern Zimbabwe ... Liyana, went on to win the Crossroads Africa Inter-Regional Music Festival in Mozambique and toured Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium. Despite their international acclaim, however, they weren't able to get on "African Idol" because ... Prudence Mabhena actually made it to the finalists but the judge said "we cannot take you because we realized...you cannot dance.

Beth Fertig
WNYC- NEWS BLOG
January 28, 2009

Disabled Zimbabwe Musicians Perform At Cedar Knolls School

Seated close by was Leslie Goldwasser, who grew up in Zimbabwe and on a return visit "discovered" Liyana .... "I think of all the concerts, this was the most special," Goldwasser said. "To see these kids react ... it really moves you. It's very special."

The band's music, described as a fresh, bright sound led by a singer with the voice of an angel ... Back in Zimbabwe, the now 21-year-old Mabhena said, having a child with a handicap could be traumatic in a country with one of the world's lowest life expectancies and highest rates of illiteracy. "They did not accept me as a child. I wasn't a part of the family. That's what happens in Africa. Tapiwa Nyengera, the 21-year-old who sings backup, plays the keyboard and is the band's front man, all from a wheelchair, said he was inspired by today's get-together."I'm seeing nothing else but love. I'd like these guys to cherish this moment". Nyengera, who has spina bifida, said he didn't feel like he has a disability. "Hell no, I don't," he said, smiling.

Philip Read
The Star-Ledger
Friday January 30, 2009, 4:40 PM

Park's A Cappella Sings With International Stars

The Eightnotes ... with Liyana and David Broza, an Israeli singer/songwriter, in a free, interdenominational music program ... Monday, Jan. 26, (2009)... in New York ...the following day ... at Teacher's College Columbia University for students from Harlem schools.

Last year, The Eightnotes sang "Ithemba Lami," a South African song (for their winter concert). When executive director for the PG Family Foundation, learned about Liyana's tour of the United States, she sent the organization a copy of the group's musical performance The Eightnotes later learned they were selected to sing ("Ithemba Lami" ) in New York.

"It's such an opportunity to sing with other people from all over the world," said Adele Dinerstein, (Director of the Park School Music Program), and Advisor to the Eightnotes.

Rochelle Eisenberg
Baltimore Jewish Times
January 23, 3009

EducationWatch: NAMM 2009

In its growing support of music education advocacy efforts, NAMM distributed plentiful materials at the show including the one-pager "Now More Than Ever." The piece highlighted crucial guidance about taking action with school boards, elected government officials and parents. This year's convention also hosted the newly formed Jazz Education Network's inaugural meetings and the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. Dedicated to providing students across the United States and Canada with free, hands-on opportunities to produce original music and video projects in the vehicle's state-of-the-art mobile recording facility, the bus held several performances on its on exterior stage including an appearance by the Liyana Band, an extraordinary group of Zimbabwe-based physically disabled musicians. Their performance demonstrated the commitment of the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus to unite young people from various cultural backgrounds through music.

In other related news, members of the Liyana Band were special guests of the GRAMMY Museum a few days after the NAMM show. The group was led on a tour by GRAMMY Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli and joined by legendary songwriter and Recording Academy Trustee Lamont Dozier. After participating in the Museum's many interactive exhibits, including laying down tracks with producer Jermaine Dupri and creating beats and loops with DJ Rap in the In The Studio exhibit, Liyana Band performed an inspirational concert. The band's unusual fusion of genres – ranging from gospel to reggae to traditional Zimbabwean Shona music – delighted an audience of nearly 200 enthusiastic students from four Los Angeles-based high schools.

GRAMMY.com
Laurel Fishman
February 25, 2009

Liyana Defies Disabilities for Music's Sake

Music as an uplifting force takes on new meaning after hearing and watching Zimbabwe's Liyana perform. Despite physical challenges ranging from spina bifida to congenital joint impairment, the eight-member group-ages 17-23-offers up a stirring and joyful mix of Afro-fusion that melts away their disabilities as soon as the first notes ring out.

Liyana (an Ndebele word meaning "it's raining" and symbolizes good luck) recently wrapped its first bi-coastal tour of the U.S., presented by the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus and co-produced by the PG Family Foundation in New York City. Playing songs from its first independent release "Sugar Rhythms," the group performed at several stops. These included San Francisco (macworld), Los Angeles (National Association of Music Merchants, House of Blues Foundation), New York (Columbia University Teachers College, Riverside Church) and Newark, NJ (Rutgers University, N.J. Performing Arts Center).

Together as a group since 2003, the members of Liyana first met as students at the King George VI School for the disabled. Serving as the group's mentor is school director Inez Hussey. Specializing in the marimbas, African drums, shakers, keyboards and piano, Liyana fuses various genres from gospel and reggae to traditional Zimbabwean Shona music. One of the group's most popular songs is "Umntwana weQhawe (Son of a Hero)."

Self-taught musically and writing most of their songs, the group not only performs in the Shona and Ndebele languages but five others as well: English, Dutch, German, Hebrew and Spanish. Two years after its formation, the group won the Crossroads Africa music festival in Mozambique. It has since toured Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands (liyanatour.com).

Crystal-voiced lead singer Prudence Mabhena is the group's most experienced member. The multi-talent-singer, songwriter, arranger, choreographer and lyricist-was a member of the award-winning Inkonjane group in 2002 and has performed with Mexican opera singer Encarnacion Vazquez. Mabhena suffers from joint-impairing arthrogryphosis, able only to move her head and a hand.

Despite the physical setbacks, "music changes everything," says Mabhena. "Singing brings joy and I feel honored to be doing it. Ms. Hussey showed us that disability does not mean inability."

Having graduated from King George VI, Liyana members still live on the school's premises. "They teach the other students about music," says Hussey. "We try to employ them all."

Sale proceeds from the current CD are used to help support the school. Hoping to eventually land a label deal, Liyana plans to record another CD. In the meantime, the group is the subject of a new Roger Ross Williams-directed documentary, "Ithemba." It's set for worldwide release in third quarter 2009.

Billboard.biz
Gail Mitchell
February 25, 2009

 

TO PLACE A STORY, CONTACT: LAURAJOHNSON@YAHOO.COM OR DEBORAHPBRIGGS@GMAIL.COM

Trailer from iThemba: My Hope, a documentary in progress about Liyana by filmmaker roger Ross Williams

iTemba video clip

Provided courtesy of iThemba Productions