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Walter works at the Exploratorium, and is an all around amazing and
great guy. He is also a "bird whisperer" and makes beautiful
photographs of raptors and others who have come to trust him...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitundu_birds/
Congrats to Walter and the the people who have provided him with
opportunities to learn and teach.
Eric Siegel
===================================
MacArthur awarded to Walter Kitundu
Sam Whiting, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Walter Kitundu, the Bay Area's only winner, with his phon...
San Francisco sound artist, instrument builder and composer Walter
Kitundu, best known for his phonoharp, which makes the common record
player a stringed instrument, was named a MacArthur Fellow on Monday
night.
Kitundu, 35, is the only Bay Area recipient of the annual award, which
comes with a $500,000 grant, funded by the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation. Kitundu, like the 24 other winners in a variety
of fields, may use the money as he sees fit. The MacArthur awards are
shrouded in secrecy and the surest way to not win one is to apply for
it. Nominees are anonymously submitted by leaders in their field, and
the only way to know you are up for a MacArthur is when they call to
say you have won.
In Kitundu's case the call came when he was driving his 1984 Honda to
the Potrero Hill campus of California College of the Arts, where he is
the Wornick Distinguished Visiting Professor of Wood Arts. "I couldn't
respond for several seconds. I had five minutes to digest the news
before teaching a class for six hours."
Kitundu said he had no plans yet for the money but they didn't involve
calling in sick. It is hard to find a substitute for a studio
furniture course that focuses on design that integrates wind, water,
tides, geologic movement, temperature and animal behaviors. (If you
are having trouble envisioning that in a chair, Kitundu will lecture
Oct. 22 at the Potrero Hill campus, an award-winning makeover of the
old Greyhound bus maintenance facility. For information: (415)
703-9563).
"I've been making my living thinking up crazy instruments," he said
Monday from the Headlands Center for the Arts, near Fort Cronkite.
"It's a privilege. I could be working 16 hours a day in a factory
somewhere."
It is unknown what got the attention of the MacArthur committee, but
the phonoharp, which looks like something John Sebastian might sample
on a reunion tour of the Lovin' Spoonful, is a good bet. It creates a
sound that combines the gentleness of the plucked strings with an LP
spun on the turntable, an appealing mixture to the Kronos Quartet, the
modern classical string band. After hearing Kitundu play the
phonoharp, the San Francisco quartet hired Kitundu to be the Kronos
Instrument Builder in residence. Kitundu built an individual phonoharp
for each member. He also wrote a piece specific to this combination,
which was performed at the San Francisco Jazz Festival a year ago,
with Kitundu himself adding a fifth Phonoharp and a little clarinet on
the side.
"The nearest person I can think of that would give people a sense of
the breadth of his interests and talent is Leonardo da Vinci," said
David Harrington, artistic director and founder of the Kronos Quartet,
reached Monday by phone in London, where the band is touring, without
its arsenal of phonoharps.
Next, Kitundu is building Kronos a set of four trumpet violins. "As
far as I know there's not a set of these in the entire country," said
Harrington, who describes Kitundu as "a wonderful force in life. He
has so many areas of talent, as a musician and instrument builder, a
bird watcher. Anything that he comes in contact with that interests
him, he masters."
Kitundu was born in Rochester, Minn., but spent his first eight years
in Tanzania before returning to Minnesota. He came to San Francisco 10
years ago, in December. "Living through 17 Minnesota winters and
seeing things bloom in December" was incentive enough.
Kitundu lives alone in a rented studio apartment in the Western
Addition, overcrowded with instruments. His kitchen is a woodshop. He
has no plans to move "not so far. I don't feel the need to make any
enormous sweeping changes."
In addition to being Instrument Builder in Residence for Kronos,
Kitundu is on staff at the Exploratorium as a MultiMedia artist. He is
also artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts.
Already a new concept is starting to formulate.
"I have a project in mind for Iceland where you make recordings in the
lava fields," he said. "I'm thinking of making 10-foot diameter
records and installing them in places where they're likely to be
covered in lava someday. The goal is to play the resulting stone
records on 15-foot hand-cranked Victrolas." There is no timetable on
this turntable.
"I don't make predictions," he said.
Eric Siegel
esiegel at nyscience dot org
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