The Zimbabwean musician Chiwoniso Maraire, better known as Chiwoniso or simply Chi, has died of suspected pneumonia aged 37. Chiwoniso was a singer and songwriter, and one of the country's best-known exponents of the mbira, the traditional thumb piano, made of metal strips attached to a wooden board.

She was celebrated for the way in which she modernised the ancient instrument, which had traditionally been used by male musicians, and for the way in which she used the mbira as the backing for her own songs, which often dealt with social and political issues, and in collaborations involving hip-hop or jazz. She was also involved in writing soundtracks for films and documentaries.

Born in Olympia, in Washington state in the US, Chiwoniso was the daughter of a celebrated Zimbabwean mbira player and teacher, Dumisani Maraire, who had moved to America to work in the ethnomusicology department at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her mother, Linda Nemarundwe Maraire, known as "Mai Chi", was a singer. Chiwoniso said she was "surrounded by music from the day I was conceived, because my parents gave music classes in the house and loved to listen to other people". She grew up listening to traditional Zimbabwean styles, as well as James Brown, Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack, the Rolling Stones, Bach and Mozart – an eclectic mix that would influence her later songwriting.

She began playing mbira at the age of four and recorded her first album with her parents when she was nine. Aged 11 she was performing with her father and her siblings Tawona and Ziyanai in the family mbira group Mhuri yaMaraire (the Maraire Family). She also played in her father's mbira group Minanzi III (Musical Sounds 3).

After her family moved back to Zimbabwe, she attended Mutare girls' high school and took evening classes at the University of Zimbabwe, where her father was teaching. She first became a musical success in Zimbabwe in the 1990s with the group A Peace of Ebony, and in 1997 she recorded her first solo album, Ancient Voices, which won the Radio France International award for best new artist. She also toured and recorded with the Zimbabwean group Andy Brown and the Storm. She and Brown married and later divorced.

Chiwoniso then concentrated on raising her daughters, Chengeto and Chiedza, but was involved in occasional music projects, including for the United Nations Development Programme and the 100th anniversary of the Nobel peace prize. She then fronted an acoustic group, Chiwoniso and Vibe Culture, and from 2001 to 2004 was a member of the multinational women's band Women's Voice, in which she was joined by musicians from Norway, Tanzania, America, Algeria and Israel.

She returned to her international solo career in 2008 with Rebel Woman, recorded for the American label Cumbancha. It was an African-pop crossover album aimed at the international market with its blend of mbira-backed ballads, and featuring leading musicians from southern Africa. Rebel Woman demonstrated Chiwoniso's gently powerful but easygoing vocal style and the strength of her instrumental work. The songs were in both Shona and English, and included her new setting for the traditional Pamuromo, and her own songs of social comment, including Matsotsi (The Land of Thieves), a lament for economic migrants who can not afford to return to their villages. "I am like a mirror," she said. "I basically sing about what I see happening in the world."

Earlier this year Chiwoniso appeared at the Harare international festival of the arts, where she was introduced on stage by the Senegalese star Baaba Maal. There were plans for her to travel to Senegal to perform alongside Maal later this year. She had also been recording a new album, but was admitted to hospital with throat problems earlier this month.

Brown died last year. Chiwoniso is survived by Chengeto and Chiedza.

• Chiwoniso Maraire, musician, born 5 March 1976; died 24 July 2013