Dedicated to veteran Ethiopian musicians Getachew Debalke and Merawi Setot, the 9th Ethiopian Music Festival blends Ethiopian, French and Brazilian sounds. The French band, ETH, inspired by the Ethiopique series, come all the way from Europe together with uKanDanz, while Maga Bo, a Brazilian artist also showcases his talents at the nine day festival.

The festivities begin with the bands briefly introducing themselves last Friday to Ethiopian music lovers at the National Theater, accompanied by Polyphonic Music of the Gammo People from southern Ethiopia. Ethiopian bands, Ethiocolor and Nubian Ark, well known for a traditional and contemporary fusion, also briefly entertained the audience.

“Our goal is not to assemble the best traditional musicians and create another folk ensemble,” Melaku Belay, leader and founder of Ethiocolor. “Our unique vision is to demonstrate that the immense musical heritage of Ethiopia can be performed with a great degree of creativity whilst maintaining its identity,” said Melaku with great enthusiasm.

The band together with the other four Ethiopian and French bands are to perform throughout next week at Club Alize, Allianc ethio-francaise and the Goethe Institut.

Peculiar to this year’s music festival, music lovers are set to celebrate the Centennial of the First Ethiopian Music Recordings by “Azmari Tessema Eshete.” It was recorded in Berlin a century ago.

During nine days of festivities, the works will be discussed by different scholars, including Shiferaw Bekele (Department of History, Addis Ababa University), Wolfgang Bender (Center for World Music, Hildesheim University), Francis Falceto (Buda Musique Paris), Eloi Ficquet (Centre Français des Etudes Ethiopiennes, Addis Ababa), Hailu Habtu (Institute for Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University), Wolbert Smidt (Asien-Afrika–Institut, Universität Hamburg) und Tadele Tessema (Grandson of Azmari Tessema Eshete), at Goethe Institut.


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