Robbi Kumalo

Robbi K is a leading star of multi-cultural, enlightened children’s music and theater. A winner of a John Lennon Songwriting award and multiple “Parents' Choice” awards, Robbi has a unique combination of song, story-telling, humor and imagination. Robbi's work celebrates American folklore and diversity, gently reminding us of how profoundly we are all connected via music, history and daily interaction - and how lost we would be without the support and example of our neighbors in the global community.

With her collaborators, known collectively as Robbi K & Friends! she inspires children and their families to reach for the best in themselves and others, teaching joyous, affirmative life-lessons through her warmly welcoming, interactive productions. A dedicated family entertainment innovator for over 20 years, Robbi performs for more than 50,000 children annually.

Robbi Hall Kumalo was born in New York City but grew up in rural Eastern Long Island, NY. As a child, she was funny, dramatic and stage-struck - in fact, her family nickname was “Sarah” as in “Bernhardt.” She was exposed to an eclectic mix of musical styles at home, from R&B to Chopin, and wrote her first song at age 3 - in honor of her brother's funny face! She began preparing for her destiny by reciting the traditional Easter Address at church, singing in the choir and taking dance and piano lessons. She also took part in local stagings of musicals all through high school. She continued her formal training at Stony Brook University and took courses in sound engineering at Five Towns College.

The fledgling singer’s powerful, flexible lyric soprano soon graced TV commercials for Coca Cola, Lincoln Mercury and GE, among others. She also developed a burgeoning career as a back-up singer for various superstars, including Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Jewel, Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Daniel Rodriguez, Mary J Blige, and Harry Belafonte, with whom she appeared on Oprah, 60 Minutes, Rosie, Regis & Kathy Lee, The View, VH-1 Storytellers, The Today Show, and The Late Show with David Letterman. Drawing upon her deep knowledge of stagecraft and sound engineering plus an inborn knack for organization, she later worked on the production teams of Spike Lee and Paul Simon.

Robbi's first taste of children's theatre came in 1981 when she had the opportunity to compose and produce a Sunday family performance at a nearby university theater. Although she knew from the start that this medium would be a crucial part of her life, she was not yet ready to devote herself to it. But working with and for kids came naturally so, between her other jobs, she performed as a puppeteer and participated in various aspects of children’s theater. In 1988, she was finally able to concentrate exclusively on the genre when she joined Shadow Box Theater, a multifaceted puppet-theater troupe with whom she is still involved, having staged several of their stories for Robbi K & Friends!

In 1993, she married Grammy award-winning South African bassist Bakithi Kumalo, whom she had met while working for Paul Simon. “He was an amazing gentleman,” she recalls, “so kind and polite. I invited him into the studio because I needed bass on some original tracks I was recording and he played my music as if he had known it all along. This touched my heart because so many folks were telling me to ‘change this’ or ‘sing like that’. But he didn't. He just came in and played my music like he knew it by heart”.

The couple’s two daughters, Mbali and Daliswa, are central to their parents’ continuing involvement with children’s theater and also inspired the name of Robbi’s company, BaliDali Productions. Trips to South Africa with her family have added still another language to the several she was already comfortable with - she sings and speaks Spanish, French, German, and Italian - and made it possible for her to develop a host of characters incorporating different accents, dialects, and idioms in Zulu.

These days, Robbi K is a teaching artist of the Lincoln Center Institute for Aesthetic Education at the Tilles Center. She sits on The Board of Directors as the Family Programs Producer for the Greater Port Jefferson-Northern Brookhaven Arts Council and is an Educational Programs Consultant with the Three Village Historical Society. Aside from the Shadow Box Theater, she has also worked with Sneakers Music, Arts Connection, HAI and TADA.

As a recording artist, Robbi K has released KEEP THE BEAT!, a 2003 Parents' Choice Award winner featuring “The Turtle's Shell” - a mesmerizing and magical tale about ancient drums and clever animals. Her 2001 album, SET IT FREE, combined world grooves, childhood favorites, and original compositions into a freewheeling festival of inclusion. Her voice is featured on the Bronx Zoo’s Congo Conservation soundtrack and she has also contributed tracks to multiple-artist compilations. AFRICAN DREAMS, a Parents’ Choice winning collection of lullabies from throughout the continent, opens with Robbi’s all-new rendition of “Lion Sleeps Tonight”, performed with her husband and oldest daughter.

As Robbi’s daughters grow, so does her insight and feeling of connection with children everywhere. As artist and mother, she is driven to deliver positive, heartfelt performances that leave participating audiences hopeful, better informed and more optimistic about our common human condition. Robbi K is living proof that cultural differences are opportunities for celebration.