Dr Kent Windress – Brisbane

Dr Kent Windress

Queensland, Australia

Kent Windress is a musician, scholar and educator who was the first Australian-born person to be initiated into the Afro-Cuban religion of Santería as a babalao. While travelling to Cuba in 2005 to study its percussion traditions, Kent was introduced to Santería and the world of the orichas and underwent a number of initiations over the following years. Since that time he has committed to studying not only the religious philosophy of Santería but also its associated musical tradition of batá drumming, and is also initiated into the fraternity of ceremonial batá drummers known as omo añá.