Mark Holdaway | en

Mark Holdaway is a Kalimba player and kalimba salesperson as well as multi-instrumentalist in Tucson, AZ. Mark began playing the guitar at the age of twelve and, after many years of musical exploration, he struck upon what would become his calling in life, the Kalimba, in 1986 while studying as a graduate student in Cambridge, MA. The Kalimba, or thumb piano, is an African tuned percussion instrument made out of a wooden box or gourd with metal tines that, when plucked with the thumbs, produce a musical tone.

In the year 2000, Mark Holdaway recorded his first album to feature the Kalimba, entitled Two Thumbs Up. At this point in his career, he held a full time job as a radio astronomer, and although he was playing in an assortment of Tucson folk groups, he had done little promotion of his self-released album. However, through a strange twist of fate, Mark was thrown into the business of the Kalimba. Faced with relocation of his job, he was forced to find an alternative, and so began importing and distributing the African-made Hugh Tracey Kalimba in 2005. He began work on a monumental effort to write instructional books for each type of Hugh Tracey Kalimba in order to popularize the Kalimba in the United States.

Also in 2005, Mark released his Christmas Kalimba album, featuring renditions of traditional holiday pieces. The following year he released a follow-up to Two Thumbs Up, entitled Between The Dark and The Light.

Mark Holdaway provides a "tip of the day" as well as other Kalimba resources on his official website, www.kalimbamagic.com. .