Dzidzor Azaglo & Steph Davis

Steph Davis is a marimbist, composer, Africana studies scholar, and cultural activist. Their music engages traditions, epistemologies, and aesthetics from the African diaspora as a means for uncovering truthful historiographies, finding creative self-actualization, and reaching for collective liberation.
Hailed by The Washington Post as a "captivating" performer who brings "bright humanity and expressive depth" to contemporary music, Steph is a marimba soloist and chamber musician, currently performing in venues across the United States — including Merkin Hall (NYC) and The Broward Center for the Performing Arts (Ft. Lauderdale, FL), among others. Integrating romantic, 20th century, and contemporary Western classical music, traditional African American spirituals, and traditional and contemporary Ghanaian gyil music, their performances explore the historiography of African American culture and freedom movements from an Africana womanist, Afrofuturist, and decolonial perspective. Through their arrangements and commissions, Steph has contributed over 20 works by Black composers to the marimba's solo and chamber repertoire. They have premiered works by Alissa Voth, Avik Chari, Bilin Zheng, Christa Duggan, Damien Geter, Jingmian Gong, and Pamela Z. A versatile and passionate collaborator, they have performed chamber music noted musicians and concert series throughout the United States. Steph proudly endorses Marimba One instruments and mallets as a Marimba One Premier Artist. Their current projects include recording their debut solo marimba album and writing a book of marimba arrangements and adaptations of music from the African diaspora.

A researcher and scholar of African American music and culture, Steph is a teaching artist with Castle of our Skins, a Black arts institution. They also teach music theory at the Boston Conservatory. They have presented performances and masterclasses on marimba and vibraphone at the University of Central Florida, University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Center of Mallet Percussion Research at Kutztown University.
Steph has been awarded residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute and Boston Center for the Arts, and artist fellowships with the Antenna Cloud Farm Experimental Institute and Music for Food. They were semifinalist in the Southern California Marimba International Artist Competition and a finalist in the Boston Conservatory Concerto Competition.
Steph received their Master of Music in marimba performance from Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where they studied with Nancy Zeltsman. They also hold a Bachelor of Music in percussion performance from the Conservatory. Other areas of study include music composition, African and African American music/history and Africana philosophy. They serve on the boards of directors at Castle of our Skins.
Steph resides on unceded land of the Neponset band of the Massachusett tribe, bordertown Boston, MA.

© Dzidzor Azaglo

Dzidzor Azaglo (pronounced Jee-Joh) is a Ga-Ewe folklore performing artist and led by her curiosity. Her unique approach blends call-and-response with a rich tapestry of sound, fusing poetry, storytelling, and auditory elements to create an immersive experience that grounds the audience in their own bodies.
Through her performance art, Dzidzor dismantles the conventional notion of a passive audience, instead beckoning them to step forward and become integral participants in the experience. Her body of work is a tapestry woven with threads of curiosity, exploring profound inquiries about divinity, community, home, blackness, and identity. She sensitively acknowledges those ensnared by a system that has historically overlooked black and brown individuals. She leans into Octavia E. Butler’s question, “What do we need to do now, to create the world we want to live in?” Dzidzor explores the possibility within bodies to unshackle themselves from internalized oppression, both in the mind and body, through practices of rest, and deliberate stillness.
Dzidzor has performed at the ICA Boston, Old North Church, Isabella Stewart Gardener, Marsh Chapel, Harvard, University of Ghana and so much more.
Presently, Dzidzor is engrossed in her latest venture, 'Wilderness', an experimental performance piece that probes the essence and complexity of black womanhood, existence, and spirituality in the context of religious teachings and the divine. Simultaneously, she serves as a Community liaison for the Reckonings Project and pursues a master's in Divinity at Boston University. Her passion for the curiosity of sound and experimentation has the distinguished title of 'rhythm architect', bestowed upon her by Knoel Scott of the Sun Ra Arkestra.