Ubaka Hill

Ubaka Hill is a renowned and inspirational performer and teacher of the art and spirit of drumming for wellness, community building, and joyful empowerment.

Hill regularly plays her signature Ube drum (a djembe drum) as well as various other percussion instruments of different cultures, including gongs, hand drums, rattles, didgeridoo, and singing bowls. Her music is intentional and indefinable, inspired by her appreciation of celtic, jazz, latin, african, shamanic, folkloric, aboriginal, and contemporary music, including the art of creative improvisation.

Her recordings include Beyond the Wind, ShapeShifters, and Dance The Spiral Dance.

She is the visionary founder of the Million Women Drummers Gathering Global Initiative to cultivate a sustainable future for drums and the trees they are made from through education, information, consciousness-raising, and tree planting. She is also the founder and curator of The Drumsong Institute Museum & Archive of Women’s Drumming Traditions of women’s folkloric and contemporary drumming.

Hill has received numerous artist and community service awards. In a 2001 Drum Magazine national poll, she was voted third as "Best Workshop Facilitator." She received "Drummer of the Year Award 2002 from The Voices of Africa Choral Ensemble, Inc.  In 2005 and 2006, she was given Honorary Citizenship and Proclamation of "Ubaka Hill Day" by the City of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She has also received awards for her community work with arts and leadership development.

Additionally, Hill is a member of the Advisory Council of the Omega Institute's Women's Leadership Center.