Keith Waithe

Keith Waithe is a Guyana-born musician, composer and teacher who has been based in the United Kingdom since 1977. He is best known as a flautist and founder of the Macusi Players – a world music jazz band whose name derives from the indigenous Guyanese Macushi people – and has been "acknowledged as the best flute player that Guyana has ever produced". and he has also developed a technique he calls "vocal gymnastics", in which he uses the voice to reproduce percussive sounds.

Biography Born in Guyana, the eldest of his parents' four children, At the age of seven he was taught to play the trumpet by his father (Darnley van Herbert Waithe, who played in big bands at the time). In 1973, he was awarded a British Council scholarship, which enabled him to study in England. Its activities have included a residency at the Eden Project in Cornwall, an education workshop in Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum, a series of African-themed workshops for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as programmes for schools in deprived communities.

He also heads Keith Waithe and the Macusi Players, a group comprising musicians of Caribbean, South American, African and Indian heritage – Waithe is known to "passionately believe in supporting cross-cultural relationships". Using his collection of more than 200 flutes from around the world, he conjures up the sounds of animals and birds reminiscent of the tropical rainforests of his native Guyana. the Ealing Jazz Festival, Wessex Book Festival, and others. He has performed around the world, including in India, Denmark, Italy, Lithuania, Estonia, Sudan, Ghana, France, Geneva, Peru, Guyana, Columbia and the Cayman Islands and US, Recent activities include a 2015 national tour and the project "Fusion Journeys" in the V&A India Festival.

He has also been featured often on radio programmes such as BBC Radio 4's Midweek and Kaleidoscope, Night Waves on BBC Radio 3, Mad About Music on Radio 2

In November 2008, Waithe went to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kampala, Uganda, where he took part in a programme of cultural events that involved bringing together classically trained British musicians with traditional Ugandan music players, as well as working with the African Children's Choir. (1982–95, organised by Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, New Beacon Books and Race Today), and has worked with a wide variety of spoken-word artists and poets, including John Agard, Sandra Agard, Patience Agbabi,

Waithe's most recent CD, Gathering Echoes, was released to critical acclaim, with the reviewer for Caribbean Life (New York) referring to it as "a significant milestone.... With this CD, Waithe, a phenomenal flautist, has proven that he has gotten better with age, appealing to a new generation of music lovers."

Awards and honours Honours that Waithe has been accorded include in 2003 the Wordsworth McAndrew Award, presented by the Guyana Folk Festival (New York) to celebrate Guyanese who have made important contributions to the country's cultural life, and in 2010 a WOM@TT Best of British Award.

He was invited by the government of Guyana to perform at the country's golden jubilee celebrations in May 2016.

On 9 November 2023, at the 57th Convocation ceremony of the University of Guyana, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of excellence in the arts.

Discography CDs The Very Best of Keith Waithe (Essequibo Music, 2015) Earth Flight The Direction (Essequibo Music, 2014) Gathering Echoes (Essequibo Music, 2010) Diverse Canopy (2005) With various artists:Music Orchids For You — Is We Ting (A Compilation Of Guyanese Music; Guyana Cultural Association NY, 2003) Mellifluous: Blossoming Into Truth (2003) Magic of Olmec (Keda Records) Last of the Medicine Men (2000, BBC Music) Live in Concert: Rhythms of Freedom (Essequibo Music, 2000) DVD Now is the Time — Keith Waithe & the Macusi Players LP With various artists: Come From That Window Child — An Anthology Of Poetry & Music (Friends of Bogle, 1986)