A co-founder of the Three Rivers Jenbé Ensemble, Oladuwa has been its artistic director since its inception. He studies, teaches and plays the traditional village style Mandé drum ensemble. A student of African Antiquities, traditional African cultures and identity development, he began drumming in 1979 with New York’s legendary Chief James Hawthorne Bey (now deceased). Since 1999 he has studied with Famoudou Konaté, Mamady Keïta, Moustapha Bangoura, the Chicago Djembe Project, Sidi Mohammed “Joh” Camara, and Lansana Kouyaté among others. He earned a BS degree in professional theatre from Fordham University at Lincoln Center in 1978, and a MS degree in Journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1983. He is an award-winning newspaper columnist with the Black Press, and 10-year veteran journalist. He has taught journalism at IPFW. Since the early 1990s he has worked as an artist with children in Fort Wayne to help them uncover their latent creativity, and find peaceful, meaningful roads to self-expression.


 

TRJE Staff

Omowale-Ketu Oladuwa    Artistic Director

A co-founder and multi-talented percussionist, singer and performer DaDa is the ensemble’s family liaison and heads the Family Services division. Begun in the early ‘80s his musical career spans two decades of drum studies. He has been instrumental in developing the Mandé musical genre throughout Northeast Indiana, and is a co-founder of JATA, the four-year-old adult adjunct to the Three Rivers Jenbé Ensemble. For 30 years he has worked a day job as a Senior Quality Technician at Superior Essex.


 

Akinlana DaDa   Assistant Director/Family Svcs. Liason

Tyrone Cato has been an amateur musician since high school, playing keyboards, drums, kalimba, and an assortment of other instruments. He has served as lead music coach with TRJE for six years, and currently directs, arranges and composes with the ensemble. He is the owner-operator of TygerRon Graphics, a local fabric printing company.


 

Tyrone Cato  Lead Music Coach

The parent of a two-year ensemble member, Hudson is a professional dancer. She has a BS in Theatre with an emphasis in dance from Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS. She has studied ballet, modern, jazz and tap, and recently began her study of traditional West African dance. She has choreographed and performed since 1987.


Joann Perez Hudson  Dance Instructor

A native of Benin, FeyFey Moussou was raised and educated in Senegal. For two years he has worked as TRJE’s case manager, attending to the social and personal needs of our families. The father of a three-year member of the ensemble, Moussou is a stabilizing, authentic, familial African presence in the midst of a community relearning what it means to be community. From 2001 to the present he has served as a Family Advocate, and Male Involvement Coordinator for Community Action of Northeast Indiana. Fluent in three languages, he teaches French in the TRJE cultural classes, and served as the ensemble’s ambassador and interpreter for its recent study tour to Guinea.


 

Ferdinand F. Moussou  Case Manager

Agatha McCarley has coordinated parent activities for Three Rivers Jenbé Ensemble for seven years. The parent of a former ensemble member, she serves as TRJE’s Parent Advisory Coordinator. She retired from Verizon in December 2006, after 27 years of service. Since 1994 McCarley held a management position as a System Administrator/Specialist with Verizon, setting up and maintaining the Network Service Support Center WebPages. She also was a member of the Consortium of Information and Telecommunication Executives (CITE).


 

Agatha McCarley  Parent Advisory Coordinator

An internationally acclaimed master dancer, drummer, and choreographer, Bangoura has traveled the globe bringing the colorful musical performance traditions of his homeland to audiences worldwide. Recognized for a thorough and charismatic technique deeply rooted in Mandé tradition, he is of Baga and Susu lineage. He began dancing and performing at the young age of 13, and was recruited into Les Ballets Africains in 1975. He quickly became a principal dancer and drummer. He has traveled to acclaim in more than 165 capitals worldwide. He is sponsored by the Republic of Guinea’s Ministry of Youth and Culture as an official art and cultural representative. Bangoura currently makes his home in Fort Wayne, IN. 


 

Moustapha Bangoura  Artist-In-Residence

Alisco Diabaté was born to the renowned Diabaté family of griots in Guinea, West Afrika. His mission is to secure the tradition of Mandé music in the West. A veteran of several well-known Guinean ballets and ensembles, he was with Les Merveilles D'Afrique in 1987 when he was recruited into Les Ballets Africains, Guinea’s most renowned national ballet. In 1995 he left Les Ballets to come to the US to perform and teach. At Yale University and the Neighborhood Music School, in New Haven, Connecticut, and at Johnson State College, in Vermont, he has since taught the complex melorhythms of the Mandé bass drum ensemble, which are his specialty. Diabaté has played with Soleil D'Afrique, Africa Sogue, and other internationally known music ensembles. Diabaté has toured Canada, Europe, and the US, and can be heard on recordings supporting the jenbé of M’Bemba Bangoura, Mohammed Diaby, and the dance of Yousouff Koumbassa, and Moustapha Bangoura, among others. He is currently in residence with Three River Jenbé Ensemble.


Alisco Diabaté  Artist-In-Residence