Matchume Zango, a Mozambican percussionist, composer, music producer, instrument maker and cultural scholar, has gained international recognition as a unique virtuoso of the African xylophone – the timbila – and a resourceful custodian of his country’s artistic traditions.

The artist’s family roots lie in the Zavala region of Mozambique’s Inhambane Province, which is regarded as the cradle of timbila music, a tradition inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This shaped Zango’s life path – from childhood, he has been passionately interested in his country’s traditional music and dance; he plays mbira, xitende and djembe, and later began crafting African instruments, becoming an innovator in the field of timbila.

Zango combines his knowledge of African percussion and musical traditions with a fusion style, improvisation, musical experimentation and electronic elements. He plays a vital role in preserving, promoting and revitalising the musical traditions of the Chope people of Mozambique for future generations, building bridges between Mozambican heritage and jazz, improvisational, experimental and electronic music whilst creating his own distinctive artistic language.

At the Vilnius Jazz, the artist will present an audiovisual programme introducing the songs, dances and rituals of the Macua and Chope peoples of Mozambique, as well as the Nyau Brotherhood, and will employ a unique artistic language to tell the story of the heritage and present-day life of these traditional communities.

Matchume Zango completed his music studies at the University of Cape Town, where he later taught. Over the past twenty years, he has travelled to many countries around the world as a performer of traditional, experimental and fusion music, a composer and a masterclass tutor. He regularly collaborates with international artists, universities, festivals and other cultural institutions.

Notable among his performances were those with the Swiss jazz pianist and sound artist Jul Dillier at the Franco-Mozambican Cultural Centre festival in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique; with the Austrian improviser Werner Puntigam at the Guelph Jazz Festival in Canada; with the talented South African trumpeter Mandla Mlangeni at the Cape Town Jazz Festival and with the Malian balafon virtuoso Balla Kouyaté at Berklee College of Music in the US, as well as a project with the UK-based world music artist and banjo virtuoso Kate Griffin.

Zango has recorded solo albums Wata M’cande and Tatei Watu. He is a member of the renowned band Timbila Mozimba.

Many national and international cultural institutions have contributed to the realisation of his projects, including Pro Cultura, Pro Helvetia, the Goethe-Institut, FUNDAC and Music in Africa.