{{Infobox person | name = Walter Jesse Kitundu | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1973|7|3}} | birth_place = Rochester, Minnesota, U.S. | occupation = Musical instrument builder, graphic artist, musical composer | awards = MacArthur fellowship (2008) | website = {{URL|http://www.kitundu.com/}} }}
'''Walter Jesse Kitundu''' (born July 3, 1973) is a musical instrument builder, graphic artist, and musical composer from San Francisco, California.
==Biography== Kitundu was born in Rochester, Minnesota and spent his early years in Tanzania. He returned to Minnesota from age 8 to 25, then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in approximately 1998. He currently lives in Chicago.
==Career and Works== right|thumb|240px|Phonoharp on exhibit at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco Described as a renaissance man, Kitundu is inventor of the "phonoharp", a stringed instrument incorporating a phonograph. After hearing the instrument, the Kronos Quartet hired Kitundu as their "instrument builder in residence". In addition to a phonoharp he also built a "phonoharp" for each of the quartet's members.<ref name=sfc>{{cite news|title=MacArthur awarded to Walter Kitundu|author=Sam Whiting|date=2008-09-23|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/MacArthur-awarded-to-Walter-Kitundu-3268349.php}}</ref> For the song "Tèw semagn hagèré" on their 2009 album ''Floodplain'', he created new instruments inspired by the begena, an Ethiopian 10-string lyre.<ref>{{cite AV media notes | title = Floodplain | title-link = Floodplain (Kronos Quartet album) | others = Kronos Quartet | year = 2009 | first = Anastasia | last = Tsioulcas | type = CD booklet | publisher = Nonesuch Records | id = #518349 }}</ref>
As of 2008 Kitundu is a "Multimedia Artist" with the Exploratorium, artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, and a Distinguished visiting professor of "Wood Arts" at the California College of the Arts.<ref name=sfc/>
Kitundu is also a wildlife photographer, with a specialty in hawks and other raptors.
==Awards== In September 2008, Kitundu won a MacArthur fellowship.<ref name=sfc/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.kitundu.com/ kitundu.com] - professional website
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitundu, Walter}} Category:21st-century American composers Category:Inventors of musical instruments Category:Living people Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Category:People from Rochester, Minnesota Category:1973 births Category:21st-century American male composers