Tuffus Zimbabwe, musician

Tuffus Zimbabwe is a pianist, composer and educator from the Boston area. Tuffus began by studying classical piano, which he did for roughly two decades. At the age of 12 he explored gospel music at a local Roxbury church where he started playing piano with the men’s choir.

In his early teens, Tuffus joined Berklee College of Music’s City Music Program, where he began his formal training in jazz. Here is where his skills and talents as a musician matured. The program offered him a laboratory to develop his compositions and a forum to perform with his peers. At eighteen, Tuffus received the City Music Walter Beasley Award, won the song writing competition at Berklee’s Five Week Summer Program, and was subsequently awarded the full-tuition “City Music Continuing Scholarship” to study in Berklee’s undergraduate program (class of ‘05). Here he dual-majored in Music Business and Film Scoring while engaging in extensive studies in composition and performance.

Tuffus’ composition skills landed him a spot on Liz Walker’s CBS-TV morning show where he performed his original “African Breeze” with the Tuffus Zimbabwe Group. One of his original compositions was already being used weekly as the theme for this show.

In 2007 Tuffus continued his education, earning his Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from New York University ('09) . At NYU, he studied with master musicians such as Stefon Harris and Gil Goldstein to name a few. While studying with these artists contributed to Tuffus’ artistic and professional development, attending NYU opened up a new city of possibilities for Tuffus and allowed him another outlet for his creativity and compositions. Two of his works were selected for NYU’s State Orphans’ Film Symposium ('09) and NYU Doctor Radio. Tuffus was also honored as a recipient of the Barney Josephson Award for Excellence in Jazz. Tuffus Zimbabwe has maintained an active practice as a music educator, teaching for two years at NYU as Jazz Studies adjunct faculty, as well as in numerous youth programs including the Berklee City Music Program, Hamilton/Garret Music & Arts Academy, and presently the Piano Outreach of New York (PONY).

Mr. Zimbabwe is a keyboardist in the Saturday Night Live house band, and also pianist and assistant musical director for Trilogy Opera Company. He has recently arranged and directed the music for a play about the life of Mabel Mercer entitled Mabel Madness written and acted in by Tony-winner Trezana Beverly.