Mentor
Evyonne Muhuri
Evyonne Muhuri is a music industry freelancer and cultural ambassador. As a freelancer she has worked on numerous booking and festival productions for national and international artists such as Grandmaster Flash, Theo Parrish, DJ Premier, Italians do it better and many more. She is co-founder of Makakali – a platform dedicated to strengthening transcultural interaction and exchange through art and music.
Mentee
Ornella Mikwasa
Ornella Mikwasa, born in Congo and raised in Germany, is the daughter of a well-known Congolese musician and guitar player. In January 1991, Ornella came to Germany with her mother and three sisters. They left Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and were one of the first black refugee families in Hamm.
Ornella’s musical talent was already discovered by her teachers when she was only in the 5th grade. The teachers encouraged her, recorded their first studio songs with her, and organized small concerts when she was 10 years old.
In 2005 she lived for a while with her uncle in America – a dream for her who is a big fan of American artists like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston. Her music became more professional. But before Ornella devoted herself completely to music, she returned to Germany. She began an apprenticeship as a freight forwarder and then worked for a large shipping company in Dortmund. The keyboard, the microphone, and the music disappeared into the closet. Afterward, it came like a stroke of fate, the forwarding agency had to close. Ornella now had to decide what to do next: next company or at least a chance for music? She decided on the latter.
Since the beginning of 2021, Ornella has been organizing her first project FÉMINA as a short film story with an audiovisual EP album for women and young girls against violence and oppression.
She has collaborated on various projects for other artists besides her own music. Ornella writes, composes, acts, and sings in 5 different languages – English, French, German, Spanish, and native Lingala. The music from Congo has a strong influence for Ornella, it is her roots and this is the source of her musical inspiration. She describes her style as Afro-Soul, AfroPop or just Pop with different African influences.
With this project, she also founded her own project and music label: KIALANDA Entertainment.