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Solange Monette

Solange, M.A., was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She studied the violin for seven years at the Music Conservatory of Quebec when she was a teenager. She was awarded a gold medal for reading music and played for three years in the orchestra of the Conservatory. She later became an anthropologist and wrote two editions of an ‘Encyclopedic Dictionary of Food‘, one edition published in five languages.

A world traveler, Solange moved to Tucson in 1996, where she discovered her passion for drumming. She studied the conga with Arturo Rodriguez and Barbara Bird (Tucson); the djembe with David Chiaw (Calgary), Michel Seguin, Jr. (Montreal), and Martin Klabunde (Tucson); the taiko with Odaiko Sonora, the repenique with Batucaxé and the dun-dun with Martin Klabunde and Adama Dembele (Tucson).

Solange has performed with J’Tam, Che Kule and the Michel Sequin Jr. Ensemble in Canada; with Dambe, Mabadiliko Ashe, Batucaxé, Flam Chen and now with Planet Djembe in Tucson. With Dambe she opened for The African Showboyz and The Refugee Allstars (Tucson).