Nwando Ebizie

Nwando Ebizie’s work exists at the intersection of composition, performance, ritual, and social engagement. It spans orchestral music, sound art, installation, dance, theatre, poetry and Afrofuturist avant-pop, with each project being shaped by its context. Ebizie works across art forms to create mythic narratives and alternate realities, inviting viewers and participants to have their perceptual world opened up or challenged.

Having originally trained in dance and physical theatre, an emphasis on physicality is central to Ebizie’s music-making. Since 2005, she has been engaged in practice-based research into ritual cultures of the African diaspora, including Haitian Vodou, Candomblé, Maracatu and Santería. These traditions have profoundly influenced how she builds complex rhythms, the role of the body in her work, and how she creates shared rituals with audiences.

Ebizie’s sonic palette is ever evolving. She began with electronic production, then learned how to incorporate classical instrumentation, field recording, and spatialised sound to create binaural recordings that shift the listeners’ perception of the body and environment. Inspired by a rare neurological condition, she explored the neuroscience of sensory perception, subsequently co-authoring a paper at the Cognitive Science Conference in Toronto in 2023. 

She is committed to building accessible, inclusive experiences. In Fall and then Rise On A Soft Winter’s Morning, a commission for London Sinfonietta, Ebizie worked with Deaf collaborators and access consultants over two years. The result was a contemporary classical concert transformed into a space of shared intimacy – where Deaf and hearing audience members waltzed together. 

Works include her immersive sensory environment Distorted Constellations, her pop persona Lady Vendredi (a blaxploitation heroine from another dimension!) and the building of her long-term operatic experience, Hildegard: Visions. She has performed in Tokyo (Bonobo), Rio de Janeiro (Tempo Festival), Berlin (Chalet), Latvia (Baltais Fligelis Concert Hall) and Zurich (Blok) as well as across the UK from Home MCR to the Barbican and Southbank Centre.