Ken Wakia’s vision is to use choral music to promote peace and cross-cultural understanding.
Ken Wakia Biography
Ken has had a rich and diverse career, blending music-making, cultural diplomacy, and education. He has had extensive leadership roles in both the arts and public sector. He was recently named one of the top 100 most influential people in Africa in the creative category for the year 2024, by the New African Magazine.
Ken has risen from humble beginnings, studying under a tree in class one at Ruga Primary School in Homabay, Kenya. He went on to gain a Bachelor of Education degree in music from Kenyatta University, Nairobi and started his career teaching music at Precious Blood Girls Secondary School in Nairobi. He gained a Master of Music in choral conducting from the University of Miami, Florida, where he studied with Prof. Jo-Michael Scheibe as a Fulbright Scholar. He later became the Assistant Dean of Students and music lead at the Africa Nazarene University. Ken went on to make significant contributions as the Cultural and Educational Affairs Specialist at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi between 2010 and 2022, managing a wide range of cultural diplomacy programmes.
Motivated by his membership in the World Youth Choir in the early years of his career and his time in the U. S. singing with Jubilate, Ken founded the Nairobi Chamber Chorus with a vision of enabling young Kenyans to participate in a high-quality musical forum from which they can build their careers and expand their realm of knowledge and interest in the arts. Since its inception, more than three hundred young Kenyans have gone through Nairobi Chamber Chorus and many are now leading musicians in Kenya, performing and teaching music across the country and beyond. Under his leadership, Nairobi Chamber Chorus has performed to audiences across the globe. They represented Kenya at the Queen of England’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations at Windsor Castle in 2012 and at the American Choral Directors Association national conference in Kansas City in 2019. He has also led the choir on tours through Europe, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Australia, China, Hongkong, South Korea and Japan performing with the World of Hans Zimmer – A New Dimension and Hans Zimmer Live productions.
Ken has gained extensive local and international conducting credits as a guest conductor with the Nairobi Music Society, the Nairobi Orchestra, the World Youth Choir and the International Schools of Southern and Eastern Africa. He enjoys the opportunity to meet new choirs and to share his passion with them.
Ken was also the founding director of the Safaricom choir, a work-place choir for the leading telecommunications company in Kenya. This was an exciting endeavour, creating a space for office colleagues to wind down their day through making music together and breaking barriers between the institution’s management hierarchies and creating a unity of sound at the end of a busy workday.
A strong believer in the power of music as a tool for global change, Ken is known for leading several initiatives and collaborations which bring diverse musicians together to share their cultural heritage through music. His deliberately eclectic style of programming reflects his passion for choral music as a tool for global peace. Alongside Dr. Kevin Fenton from Florida State University, Ken co-founded AVoice4Peace project which seeks to promote non-violent resolutions to conflict around the world through choral music.
As a result of his dedication to promoting Kenyan and African choral music internationally with the Nairobi Chamber Chorus, Ken was recognized as the 2019 African Image Maker by the Voice Achievers Award International. He was also enlisted as a Nexus Global Leadership Council Member by Nexus Arts and Culture.
With a solid foundation in both arts and diplomacy, combined with a deep commitment to education and community service, Ken’s professional profile reflects a dynamic and impactful career that bridges cultures through music.