Queens' alum Ssegawa-Ssekintu Kiwanuka (2009) is currently in Nanning, China as part of the British Council's Musician in Residence scheme. The scheme gives young musicians the opportunity to immerse themselves in a different culture and explore different musical traditions.
Ssegawa-Ssekintu read Chemical Engineering at Queens' but was something of a polymath, earning a Blue for boxing and founding the band Clean Bandit whilst still a student at Cambridge. He left the band to pursue a PhD in Laser Spectroscopy, but returned to music in 2015 to release a solo project, Minds EP, under the stage name Love Ssega. Love Ssega became a PRS Foundation Momentum Artist in 2017 with the release of his second EP, Emancipation, which was not only successful in the UK but also internationally, and led to BBC Music Introducing and the BBC World Service selecting him as one of the "Fifty First" acts for The Great Escape in 2018. Some photographs from his trip so far are below:
Speaking about his opportunity to travel to China as part of the Musician in Residence Scheme, Love Ssega said:
“This is an absolute honour to be selected by PRS Foundation and the British Council to be a Musician in Residence in China. What a beautiful story to be chosen as a British citizen of Ugandan heritage, London born-and-raised, to travel to the cultural colossus of East Asia specifically to make music.
“I’m very excited to be spending time in musically-diverse and historically-significant Guangxi. It will be a privilege to work and record with the region’s diverse musicians, and also experience a heritage that includes folk and opera all the way to their burgeoning world fusion scene. I will be putting out new music from my experience and collaborating across all forms of art, as much as I can.”
Love Ssega will be returning to the UK after his residency in Nanning and is performing live on Tuesday, 21st May at The Curtain, Shoreditch, information about which can be found on his website.
If any Fellows, students or staff have news items they would like to be featured on the College website, please send them to the Development Officer (Communications)
Alice Webster acw69@cam.ac.uk and 01223 (7)46980
T6 Fisher Building