About Anyango

BORN AND RAISED IN MUNICH, GERMANY, violinist Anyango Yarbo-Davenport was born into the musical family of American soprano Africa Yarbo-Davenport and the late Austrian conductor Hans Peter Jillich. She performs regularly in such notable venues as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Royal Festival Hall London, Teatro Mayor Bogotá, Mozarteum Saal Salzburg, and Teatro Colon and can be heard on radio and TV in the US, South America, and Europe. 2023/24 she is invited as Artist in Residence at Rutgers University, Emory University (Schwartz Artist in Residence) and the University of Richmond among others. Anyango will be performing the iconic concertos from Beethoven, Brahms, Piazzolla and Price throughout the Americas and Europe during the 2023–25 seasons. Recent engagements include solos with the Orchestra Bellas Artes at the televised New Year’s Gala, performances on BBC, FOX26, WXXI, PBS and NPR, as well as chamber music collaborations with members of the Vienna Philharmonic. Anyango’s debut CD AMERICANA! (Sheva Collection UK, 2022) was released by Naxos Digital Library April 2022 and features a collection of contemporary American music by Grammy winning composers Aldridge (world premiere recording), Higdon and Corigliano with pianist Vanessa Fadial (The Colburn School Los Angeles). She recorded her second CD Invisible Threads (Sheva Collection UK, 2024) with duo partner pianist Jinson Kim featuring works by Florence Price, Bela Bartok, Torū Takemitsu and the world premiere recording of colombian composer Juan Antonio Cuellar’s “Safos”. Invisible Threads was awarded the prestigious research prize by Banco Santander. Since making her début in 2017 as the newly appointed soloist and conductor of the Colour of Music Festival Virtuosi, an all-female/ co-ed chamber orchestra of African ancestry, the ensemble has presented widely celebrated and sold-out events at institutions such as The City University of New York, UC Davis, The Riviera Theatre Charleston, University of Houston, and others. She is program curator of the COMF Virtuosi and a member of the festival’s artistic committee. Anyango pursued her Doctoral degree at the Eastman School of Music (New York) where she was awarded the coveted Performers’ Certificate and served as teaching assistant to her mentor, Charles Castleman. She received her early training at the Musik Hochschule Munich (Germany), the University “Mozarteum” Salzburg (Austria) with additional studies at the Sibelius Academy Helsinki (Finland) with Paivyt Meller. Her newly founded artist collective Davenport Chamber Players focuses on bringing a diverse spectrum of musicians, visual and scenic artists together for societally and educationally progressive interdisciplinary productions. The ensemble’s first performance took place February 2024 at THE MET as part of the MET Live Arts production “Handel: Made in America” featuring Terrance McKnight. The seed to founding the collective was planted during her post-doctoral fellowship 2021/22 at Belmont University (USA) where Anyango expanded her research areas amongst others into commissioning and recording works for violin solo written by underrepresented composers based on their native fairy tales. Anyango is professor and coordinator of violin and chamber music at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Bogota (Colombia). She previously served as faculty at Universidad de Los Andes Bogota and at the summer music institutes of Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of North Texas. A dedicated teacher, Anyango was awarded the Jack L. Frank Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her students win top prizes in international competitions, hold orchestra positions in the Americas and Europe, and have been accepted into the top universities of Germany, France, Austria and USA. Anyango performs on an 18th Century French violin, chooses from bows ranging from the Peccatte School to contemporary makers and is an Olitarte Artist.