Music Instrument Builder. Composer/Performer. Artist

Grew up in Namakwaland and Cape Town, South Africa.

Now lives in  Toscana, Italy.

Phillip Nangle is a musician and instrument builder of Southern African instruments. He specialises in making and playing mbira, marimba, bows, overtone flute and traditional violin. He arranges and composes for combinations of these instruments. He began music with guitar at 12 years of age followed by piano and later flute though he had no formal music training. He was a member of The Happy Ships art/rock band from Cape Town. In his mid-twenties he began building instruments and learning African music through interacting with African musicians and dancers in Southern Africa. He trained in African dance drumming and story-telling and was contemporary dance percussionist for dance studios and UCT ballet school. Phillip worked in the nine years leading up to the end of apartheid with music/dance/drama workshops, performances and education bringing together people from separated cultures. He co-workshopped and performed in the cross-cultural Abamanyani show, (Grahamstown Festival 1st Fringe Award 1987), directed the music for and performed in Isegazini, (Festival 2nd Fringe Award 1988), directed the music for Third World Bunfights’ production “The Prophet”, (Festival 1st Award 1998). He worked with some leaders of Cape Town marimba and dance groups to create the Kwangoma Orchestra. He is an artist exploring musical expression through painting as a music notation form. He lives in Italy where he farms self-sufficiently.