LATEST:

My new project with Cello Octet Amsterdam, “Birdsongs from Kĩrĩnyaga”, sees its world premiere at Rewire Festival in April 2025!

Since my last release in 2023, I've been working on not one but TWO album projects at the same time — no idea how that happened — but slowly and surely, the projects are getting ready to share. It's a big honour to be premiering one of those projects, called ‘Birdsongs from Kĩrĩnyaga’, at Rewire Festival in The Netherlands, on April 6th, 2025. This is a collaborative reunion with the amazing Cello Octet Amsterdam, who I first performed with in 2022.

‘Birdsongs from Kĩrĩnyaga’ is quickly turning out to be a special project for me — i have my ears to the skies all the time now; though perhaps it’s unsurprising, as in some way, every composer ultimately returns to birds. 

I’ve been thinking about the vitality of oral traditions; i’ve been thinking about how birds have always trusted sound to store their knowledge; and how similarly, communities across the African continent have trusted sound to archive their knowledge. The colonial systems undermined and undervalued the strength of storing knowledge oral contexts; yet, the more I work with sound, the more I have come to understand the potency of oral tradition is in how it asks each of us to share the responsibility remembering, and of retelling. 

2025

Press (including features and interviews)

2024

No release this year, but! I went on 3 tours on 3 different continents (North America, Australia and Europe), two of which were with the inimitable Julia Holter!

  • Supporting Act for Julia Holter’s North America Tour - 6 shows across East Coast USA, including in New York’s Webster Hall (May 2024)

    Solo Australia Tour (curated by Lawrence English) - Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane), and The Substation (Melbourne) - (July 2024)

    Supporting Act for Julia Holter’s EU/UK Tour - 10 shows (including in London’s Islington Assembly Hall and cities including Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, Ghent, Stockholm, Oslo, Luxembourg) (November/December 2024)

  • I attended 3 international film festivals in 3 different cities (Nairobi Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) — each of which screened different films that i wrote music for, including my first feature-length film, The Shadow Scholars (co-scored with Keir Vine).

2023

the release of my second record (or debut album), FEELING BODY (cmntx records), plus my first tour, and my COLORS show!

2022

the release of my first record (debut EP), “peace places: kenyan memories”!

2020 & 2021

upcoming events:

Featured
Birdsongs from Kĩrĩnyaga Premiere at Rewire Festival 2025 - Nyokabi Kariũki & Cello Octet Amsterdam (The Hague, NL)
Apr 6
Birdsongs from Kĩrĩnyaga Premiere at Rewire Festival 2025 - Nyokabi Kariũki & Cello Octet Amsterdam (The Hague, NL)

I am OVER THE MOON to be collaborating with Cello Octet Amsterdam again! The world premiere of my new work, ‘Birsdongs from Kĩrĩnyaga’, will be performed in April at Rewire Festival in The Hague, NL.

Nyokabi Kariũki at Wiener Festwochen - Academy Second Modernism (Vienna, AT)
Jun 8
Nyokabi Kariũki at Wiener Festwochen - Academy Second Modernism (Vienna, AT)

Ten internationally pioneering female composers* who explore our globalized present in a multi-voiced way are the focus of two concerts with Klangforum Wien. The audience will experience a wealth of inspiring artistic signatures of a global, second, feminist modernity.

past events:

Featured
Birdsongs from Kĩrĩnyaga - Tryout Concert with Cello Octet Amsterdam at A-Lab, Amsterdam (NL)
Apr 3
Birdsongs from Kĩrĩnyaga - Tryout Concert with Cello Octet Amsterdam at A-Lab, Amsterdam (NL)

A little try-out concert with Cello Octet Amsterdam, in advance of our premiere at Rewire Festival in The Hague!