Summary
Dave Kobrenski is a professional musician, instrument maker, and author with two decades of immersive experience in West African music traditions and ethnomusicology. Trained at Syracuse University and through long-term apprenticeships in Guinea and Ghana, he is fluent on djembé, dunun, kamale ngoni, balafon, and the Fula tambin, and has apprenticed for over a decade with master flutist Lancine Condé. He blends performance, composition, recording (Logic Pro), instrument crafting (Kassa Flute Co.), and publishing (Mythmakers Publishing) to create multidisciplinary cultural projects and books that bridge scholarship and art. As founder of multiple ensembles and a recording studio, he arranges traditional Malinké repertoire into contemporary world-funk-jazz contexts while maintaining authentic technique learned in West Africa. An illustrator and web designer by training, he also brings visual and digital design skills to his creative enterprises, making him a rare hybrid of maker, performer, and cultural documentarian.
11 years of coding experience
10 years of employment as a software developer
Illustration, Painting, Illustration, Painting at Syracuse University
Music and Ethnomusicology, Music and Ethnomusicology at Apprenticeship in West Africa
French