François Du Bois  François Du Bois, born in La Charité-sur-Loire in Burgundy, France, is a composer, marimba virtuoso, as well as professor, columnist and author. Du Bois began to learn music when he was 8 years old. By the age of 17, he had already become a professional. At 16 years old, François Du Bois embarked upon a career path as a symphonic orchestra percussionist and a jazz drummer, which he pursued until he was 26. In the classical field, he has worked with Lorin Maazel, Olivier Messiaen, and Mstislav Rostropovich, and in the field of jazz, he has worked with Richard Galliano, Trilok Gurtu, Dominique Di Piazza, and Abbey Lincoln. Dissatisfied with the lack of artistic substance in his music, Du Bois left France at the age of 20 for Africa, in search of experience and inspiration that would lend his music greater substance, a journey that led him to Burkina Faso. During his first year there, Du Bois caught malaria, but he fully recovered. Several years later, Du Bois' musical education had become complete after having studied under his mentor, Ray Lema. Lema is an African singer and composer who founded the National Ballet of Zaire (today Democratic Republic of the Congo). Du Bois played in a duet with the Canadian violinist Hélène Collerette, who is currently the premier soloist of the "Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France". Later he played in a duet with the Australian violinist Jane Peters—winner of the Tchaikovsky Prize—in a concert tour through Germany. He also performed with the pianist Ludovic Selmi, in concert tours throughout Europe and Japan. The two of them collaborated with Les Tambours du Bronx, among other groups. After the dissolution of the duo, Du Bois began to concentrate on composing music and recording it. In 1998, Du Bois left Paris for Tokyo on a quest to discover new horizons in the field of music. Keio University invited Du Bois to create a special class in musical composition for the Political Science department. That same year, he created the “Orchestre d’autre part”, an ensemble that consisted of 14 marimbists and taiko players. Keiko Abe, a key person in the development of the marimba, introduced Du Bois to two of her former students with whom he would record the album “Origine”.