Dunia Best is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and composer who specializes in combining musical styles from around the world.
A veteran of the New York City ska scene, her bands Agent 99, Dubistry, Brave New Girl and Dunia and Aram are groundbreaking ensembles that push past boundaries to help forge the creation of new genres like ska-punk, neo-soul and skattagecore.
Dunia is a founding member of the ground-breaking all female ska superensemble “Rude Girl Revue” whose performances at the Supernova International ska festivals have drawn thousands of fans from around the world. She was an early member of the Slackers, has been a featured vocalist on Stubborn Records’ release “Roots Branch and Stem” with Dunia and the Stable Boys and more recently with ska legend Wilburn “Stranger” Cole in collaboration with world renown ska band, Eastern Standard Time. She has collaborated with choreographer Shalewa Mackall to create custom electro-acoustic music for modern African diasporic choreography. Her music has been featured worldwide on radio and compilations. Her song “One of These Days”, written with Aram Sinnreich and Todd Nocera won a finalist position in the 2015 John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the jazz category. Dunia has collaborated with the band Heavensbee, featuring her long-time musical sister Honeychild Coleman and ska brethren Roger Apollon and Marc Wasserman. Dunia has performed with queen of DC soul, Caz Gardiner. Dunia also plays with Supernational Sound System, a genre-defying supergroup fronted by guitarist and composer Rob Coltun. Dunia project Dunia and Aram, cofounded by composer and bassist Aram Sinnreich has toured Europe and the U.S. and has been featured on independent music charts with the single “It’s Never Easy Si.
Dunia is currently the President of the Supernova Alliance, a Virginia based non-profit, dedicated to bringing music and communities together locally and around the globe. She spent five years working for the concert presenting non-profit organization World Music Institute in New York, who presented music from countries like Mali, Hungary and Italy as well as local performers of music from around the world. She has also been on the board of the Maryland Youth Pipe Band, a performing and competing youth bagpipe band that offers music lessons and Scottish cultural experiences to young musicians from all around Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia.
Dunia has a passion for music and culture and for removing the borders that limit human understanding and growth. Her goal is to unite people across the street and around the world.
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