Biography

The Late Rwanda musician Kizito Mihigo, was born Saturday, July 25th, 1981 at Kibeho, a sector of Nyaruguru district, in the former Gikongoro province, currently located in the Southern Province.

Son of the late Augustin Buguzi and Ilibagiza Placidia, Kizito grew up in a Catholic Christian educational environment. At the age of 9, he began to compose small songs, and five years later, when he was a secondary school student in the Petit Seminaire de Butare, he became the most popular liturgical organist composer in the Catholic Church of Rwanda.

In April 1994, when he was almost 13 years old, the young Mihigo survived the genocide against the Tutsis, in which more than eight hundred thousand Tutsis were murdered including his own father.

A few years later, this tragedy inspired the young talent to become the organist-singer-author and composer of the most popular songs in Rwanda. One year after the genocide, Kizito Mihigo composed hundreds of liturgical compositions which were rapidly exploited in several parishes in Rwanda.

In 2000, (when he was 19 years old), Kizito Mihigo was already author and composer of over 200 (two hundred) liturgical songs, sung in all the parishes of Rwanda.

in 2001 (when he was 20 years old), Kizito Mihigo collaborated with other musicians in the New National Anthem composition. In 2003, noticed by the authorities of the country, he was sent to Europe to follow his music studies. In 2008, he received the postgraduate diploma (DFE) at the “Conservatoire de Musique de Paris”.

From 2008-2010, after his graduation, he was a music teacher in Belgium. In 2010 he founded the KMP (Kizito Mihigo for Peace) a non-profit foundation with the objective to use Art for Peace, Reconciliation, Unity, Nonviolence and the Human Dignity in Rwandan society after the genocide against Tutsis in 1994.