The Herald (Harare)

ZIMBABWEAN sungura maestro Alick Macheso will next month embark on a month-long maiden tour of the United States.

Orchestra Mberikwazvo tour manager, Derrick Shonhiwa, confirmed that Macheso will be in the US for virtually the whole of next month.

The first show will be on October 10 in Washington DC while the last show will be in Dallas on October 25.

In between, Macheso is billed to perform in Philadelphia (October 11), Boston (October 12), Atlanta, Georgia (October 17) and Indianapolis, Indiana (October 18).

He has toured Ireland, Australia, and the United Kingdom where he was able to draw large crowds of both Zimbabweans in the Diaspora as well as foreigners.

Cheso Power promotions Manager William Tsandukwa said that he was delighted that foreign music promoters had shown interest in them.

"It is such an honour for foreign promoters to recognise our ability and invite us to perform internationally.

"This will be a chance for us to market ourselves in the diaspora, I am confident that we will not disappoint fans, actually we hope to create a new fan base in the diaspora," said William.

William however, said that only 11 members of the group would be travelling to America, meaning the dancers (Stock birds) will have to stay behind.

"We are yet to collect our passports but it has been confirmed the visas have been processed and the venues have been booked.

"We would have wanted to take everyone on board but this is our first tour in America and we don't want to strain our promoters with a situation whereby they will not be able to cater for us.

"The truth is we don't know how we will fare there and we want to see how it goes so that next time we travel with the whole band.

"But this is not to say that we are anticipating our shows to flop," said Tsandukwa.

Travelling group:

Alick Macheso, William Tsandukwa, Jonas Kasamba, Clever Masimba, Donald Gogo, Francis "Slomo" Dhaka, Zacharia Zakaria, Elton Muropa, Obert Gomba, Noel Nyazanda, and Lucky Murimiki.