Stefan Franke

Stefan Franke is founder of sympathetic-resonances.org, a non-profit platform dedicated to the documentation and learning of Mbira music. As a student of the Mbira star Stella Chiweshe he has been engaged with this music for more than ten years. Through his research in archives and the exchange with local musicians he has realized the great variety of its traditional instruments, repertoires, and tunings - as well as the rapid decline of this diversity over the past six decades. With a background in software development, interactive designs, and media art, Franke has spent the better part of his career as co-author of a globally popular software for music production. This work has not only provoked critical perspectives regarding the impact that Western digital tools have had on global musical diversity. It has also laid the foundation for the development and educational agenda of his platform.

As of March 2019