XyloFun
Pedro Espi-Sanchis
Pedro Espi-Sanchis is the founder and director of XyloFun.
He is well known as ”Pedro the Music Man" from a long-running children's television series on SABC. He is a musician and African music specialist who has been involved in music
education and teaching training for over 35 years. He is recognized in South Africa and
internationally for his ground-breaking work in bringing African music into the classroom, and for his ability to "use anything to make melodious music anytime anywhere with everything" (as one teacher wrote on his feedback form.)
He has written the music sections of multiple textbooks for Oxford University Press and other major publishers. Parallel to his work in education, Pedro also performs as a musician and story-teller, including close collaborations with some great African musicans.
He oversees the production of the xylophones and delivers the XyloFun training in person.
Lisa Espi
Lisa Espi is co-producer on the project, overseeing design, materials development and training. She has an honours degree in Drama in Education from UCT and has worked for many years in the field of creative arts education in South Africa, writing materials and training teachers in many different urban and rural settings. Her special interests are the visual and performing arts.
Nelson Banderson
Nelson Banderson is involved in making the XyloFun instruments from construction to the tuning stage. He was born in Limpopo and has lived in Cape Town since he was a young child. He came to XyloFun as an established craftsman and designer, notably making baskets and vessels out of strapping and used tyres. His work is of exceptional quality in terms of precision, strength and design and is stocked by the Kim Sacks Gallery in Johannesburg and Kalk Bay Modern in Cape Town.