Tunde Jegede was born in
London, England, in 1972 to a Nigerian father and English mother (of Irish descent – the painter/filmmaker Galina Chester). His father Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede was artist-in-residence at North London's
Keskidee Centre, Britain's first Black Arts Centre, where Tunde's appreciation of African diasporic culture was initiated and nurtured. Jegede's apprenticeship in African music began in 1978 and was further developed in 1982 when he first went to
The Gambia to study the ancient griot tradition of West Africa, with
Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, Master of the Kora (West African harp-lute). The Jobarteh family are one of five principal musician families within this hereditary oral tradition, which dates back to at least the 13th century. Jegede's appreciation of Western Classical music began with his grandfather's love of
Bach and by observing his work as a church organist. Jegede also studied cello from the age of eight, and over the years was taught by people from the Classical world, including Alfia Bekova, Elma de Bruyne,
Joan Dickson and
Raphael Wallfisch at the
Purcell School and later the
Guildhall School of Music. In 1988, Jegede became fascinated with jazz and worked and toured with ex-members of the
Jazz Warriors founded by
Courtney Pine and
Cleveland Watkiss. Jegede formed his own jazz ensemble, The Jazz Griots, with the purpose of exploring the connections between African and African diasporic forms of music. In 1991, he pioneered African Classical music in the UK with a national tour of the African Classical Music Ensemble, which nurtured his burgeoning composer credentials. In 1995, a BBC TV documentary called
Africa I Remember was made about Jegede's music and focused on his orchestral work. In this programme, he performed new compositions alongside the
London Sinfonietta, which was conducted by
Markus Stenz. With his now fully-fledged composer credentials, Jegede was appointed as innovations composer for the Eastern Orchestral Board, who facilitated his working with many of the major orchestras in the UK, including the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the
Philharmonia,
Britten Sinfonia, Viva Sinfonia, the
London Mozart Players and the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. All these orchestras and ensembles were keen to play his original compositions. During this period, he was specially commissioned to write a percussion concerto for
Evelyn Glennie and Double Orchestra, an oratorio for the city of
Milton Keynes and a string quartet for the
Brodsky Quartet as a part of their
Beethoven Op. 18 recording, which was released on the Vanguard label and is still being performed by them worldwide. Over the years, Jegede has kept his creative diversity intact by working closely with singers, vocalists, and spoken-word artists from a wide range of traditions, including opera, pop, R'n'B, reggae, hip hop, and jazz. In 2002, he started ACM Productions with the primary goal of creating accessible quality productions across a small spectrum of genres, namely: Urban, Pop, Classical and jazz. ==Cultural influences==