(21 Aug 2013) TRIBUTE CONCERT FOR ETHIOPIAN COMPOSER AND NUN, EMAHOY TSEGUE-MARYAM GUEBROU
Jerusalem played host on Tuesday (21AUG2013) night to a tribute concert for the 90-year-old Ethiopian nun and composer Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou.
It was the first time the sombre and delicate music of the pianist-composer had been performed in Jerusalem. Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou is a daughter of the prominent Ethiopian intellectual Kentiba Guebrou and spent most of her childhood in exile in Europe where she was educated in classical music. She abandoned her official studies to become a nun at the age of 19 in a remote area of Ethiopia. During this time she studied the African nation's religious music and played for up to 9 hours a day, composing many of her pieces for violin, piano and organ. In 1984, she fled to Israel, continuing her work at the Ethiopian Monastery in Jerusalem. P
ianist and performer Maya Dunietz explained Guebrou musical influences and style. "In her own eyes the composer sees herself as continuing the legacy of Beethoven and Schumann and Chopin and Brahms," she said. According to the Emahoy Music Foundation website, Emahoy's first record was released in Germany in 1967 with the help of Emperor Haile Selassie. Other recordings followed with the help of her sister Desta Gebru; the proceeds were used to help an orphanage for children of soldiers who died fighting at war.
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