Meet Nzikamira, a Rwandan teaching music in Kenya
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Tresor Nzikamira. Photo/Courtesy

TRESOR NZIKAMIRA, a Rwandan professional musician, decided to take the skills he got from Nyundo School of Arts and Music to Kenya where he teaches music.

Nzikamira was one of the 30 musicians who won the competition and enrolled in the first promotion at Nyundo School of Art and Music. He was there for three years learning how to play instruments. He also studied Music Production, Vocal, and other music-related studies like Music Theory, Choir just to mention a few.

"The skills I gained from Nyundo School of Art and Music allowed me to become a professional musician. Now I do music for a living. My daily job includes teaching music in various schools in Kenya and offering some personal coaching courses to people who want to learn a thing or two about music.” Tresor told The New Times.

After his studies at Nyundo, he managed to perform in different events and stages. Like in the 27th Edition of the African Union Summit which took place in Kigali in 2016. He performed with Symphony Band during Transform Africa 2017. In the same year, Tresor also performed at European Street Fair with Symphony and went on to perform at Youth Connekt that was attended by renowned American-born Senegalese singer Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, best known as Akon.

Tresor who went to Kenya in 2018, teaches at Music in Doors of Hope Christian School. Besides that, he is also a singer and does music production too in his studio dubbed ‘2Stones Records’ located in Kenya. Last year he released songs like ‘Ntacyo Watanze’ and ‘Amini Yesu,’ that was a hit song in Kenya.

When asked what inspired him to become a musician, the artiste revealed that he got it from his family background, "Most of my relatives were singers in their respective church choirs. Concerning musical instrument playing, I got inspired by my father and both grandfathers who were good at playing ‘Inanga’. My elder brother, Boniface Nsabigaba was also a good pianist.”

He told this publication that he worked with several artistes like Masamba Intore, Dieudonne Munyanshoza. He was part of Shauku Band and Symphony Band (by then they acted as the band from Nyundo) in 2017 while they were playing for big artists in Rwanda including; Knowles, Tom Close, Urban Boys, Intore Masamba, Christopher, Jules Santore, and Kitoko to mention a few, during the running of Presidental Campaign, entertaining Rwandans in all 30 districts of the country.

"In fact, the way we were taught was more of vocational training skills. The school gave us the full package with enough knowledge that permits us to professionally teach whatever we learned from there. With that, they equipped us with more practical skills and certified us too.”

Tresor Nzikamira was born in DRC and raised in Rwanda, Ruhango District. He did his primary school from his hometown, went to Groupe Scholaire Indagaburezi, and finished his Advanced level from APEKI Tumba where he did Computer Science and Management. Later, he joined UNILAK/Rwamagana Campus and majored in Management.