World Honours the Remarkable Life and Music of Late Ethiopian Nun

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was an Ethiopian nun and pianist who gained worldwide recognition for her unique and deeply personal compositions. Her music reflected the different facets of her remarkable life and continues to inspire admirers around the world, even after her passing at the age of 99.

Guèbrou gained renewed attention as she approached her centenary, with fans and music critics worldwide eagerly rediscovering her work. She was a source of fascination for connoisseurs, particularly following the 2006 release of a disc dedicated to her work in the iconic Ethiopiques series by Buda Musique, reports Ilana Webster-Kogen for The Conversation.

Guèbrou lived a monastic life for decades, having moved to Jerusalem in the 1980s during a difficult period of military dictatorship under Mengistu Haile Mariam and never returning permanently to Ethiopia. She was known to continue to practice the piano in her room in the convent well into her 90s.

Guèbrou's work is usually described as highly syncretic - drawing from a wide variety of musical sources - mostly non-Ethiopian references from the western and jazz canons. Critics point to her long improvisations and her free adoption of the tonal ranges that the piano can accommodate. No doubt, her gender and instrument influence this description. Women in Ethiopia are most often singers and dancers, not instrumentalists. If they do play an instrument, it is the krar, a six-stringed lyre on which they accompany their own singing.