Our Beginnings...and Now

Kusi Taki means "Enchanting Music" in the Quechua language of Peru. The music of Kusi Taki originated centuries ago in the high plains of the Andes mountains in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. The songs celebrate different aspects of life...spirituality, melancholy, tenderness, nature, and love.

In the early 1990's, Oscar Rios Pohirieth and a few friends wanted to find a way to share their mutual love of Andean music with others in Nebraska. They hoped that the music might encourage people learn about the indigenous cultures of South America.

The group, Kusi Taki, evolved from that simple desire to play this haunting and truthful music on traditional instruments for those who have never heard it. The original outreach continues to expand as they use the music as a teaching tool in schools around the region. They love to watch the joy in the faces of the children (and the adults) as they experience, for perhaps the first time, the beauty of another culture through its music.

A Few Milestones for Kusi Taki

• First CD, Canto Alegre, in 1997. 

• Opened for Beau Soleil at the 10th anniversary of the Lincoln Lied Center for the Performing Arts in 1999.

• Honored by the KZUM Radio Members’ Choice Award for World Music in 1997 and 2003.

• Second CD - Amanecer, released in December of 2004.

• Our first website! Launched in December of 2004.

Funding for Non-Profit and Educational Organizations

Although our fee is within the range of most budgets, most of our fee can be reimbursed to non-profit organizations through the Nebraska Humanities Council Speakers Bureau.

The Nebraska Humanities Council enhances the quality of life in communities across our state through programs that study the human race, its achievements, its creations, its dreams and aspirations, its failures and triumphs.  Non-profit organizations and education organizations are eligible to receive Kusi Taki funding through the Council.

For more information see the Nebraska Humanities Council Speakers Bureau at http://www.nebraskahumanities.org/hrc.html and the Kusi Taki listing at http://www.nebraskahumanities.org/speakersIF.html

Remember, Kusi Taki is dedicated to encouraging diversity and acceptance of all cultures.  It was founded so that Nebraskans might experience the Andean cultures of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Venezuela through an acoustic musical journey.  We provide a multicultural, bi-lingual experience with Latin American music, language & culture.

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Kusi Taki website design by Barb Biffle