Mitchel Strumpf

BIO

Prof Mitchel Strumpf was an American music educator based in Tanzania.

Before setting sail to Zanzibar, he worked for eight years as a music professor in the University of Dar es Salaam. Born in New York, a child of German parents, he decided to spend his life in Africa.

The clarinet player, who considered himself a "conservative extremist", left the US when he was 20 and stayed in different countries all over Africa for 50 years.

While maintaining certain German characteristics such as always being on time, he also adapted the African tradition of hospitality and sociability.

Rather than sitting down and listening to a recording, he preferred to watch and listen to music as a human expression.