Wikipedia

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by her given name, Yewubdar, until the age of 21, then by her title Emahoy and her religious name, Tsegué-Maryam, and not as Guèbrou.

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (Gəʿəz ጽጌ ማርያም ገብሩ; born Yewubdar Guèbrou, 12 December 1923 – 26 March 2023) was an Ethiopian composer, pianist, and nun.[1] She is generally known as Emahoy, a religious honorific.[2]

Biography edit

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam was born as Yewubdar Guèbrou in Addis Ababa, on 12 December 1923, to a wealthy Amhara family. Her given name Yewubdar means the most beautiful one in Amharic. Her father was a mayor of the historical city of Gondar. At the age of six she was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland, where she studied violin. In 1933 she returned to Ethiopia, where she became a civil servant and singer to Emperor Haile Selassie.[3][4][5]

 
Original manuscript of the lyrics to the song "Jesus is my paradise".

During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1937), she and her family were prisoners of war and were sent by the Italians to the prison camp on the Italian island of Asinara and later to Mercogliano, near Naples. After the war, Yewubdar studied under the Polish-Jewish violinist, Alexander Kontorowicz, in Cairo. Kontorowicz and Yewubdar returned to Ethiopia, where Kontorowicz was appointed musical director of the band of the Imperial Body Guard.[6] Yewubdar was employed as an administrative assistant.[7] She was fluent in seven languages.[8] When she was 21, Yewubdar became a nun and spent a decade living in a hilltop monastery in Ethiopia, taking the title Emahoy and the religious name Tsegué-Maryam.[9][10] "I took off my shoes and went barefoot for 10 years. No shoes, no music, just prayer."[11]

She later left the Addis Ababa convent and returned to her family where she composed music for the violin, piano and organ.[10] With the help of Haile Selassie, her first record was released in Germany, in 1967.[9]

In 1984 she fled Ethiopia to Jerusalem, after her religious beliefs were attacked under the rule of the dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. She settled in an Ethiopian Orthodox convent in Jerusalem.[8]

The Emahoy Tsege Mariam Music Foundation was set up to help children in need, both in Africa and in the Washington, D.C. metro area to study music. In April 2017, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam was the subject of the BBC Radio 4 documentary The Honky Tonk Nun.[12]

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam died on 26 March 2023 in Jerusalem, at the age of 99.[13][14] Her funeral was held at the Kidane Mehret Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, on 31 March 2023, where a piano which had belonged to her was played in tribute.[10]

Music edit

Her music has been described as melodic blues piano with rhythmically complex phrasing.[15] For three decades she lived a reclusive life with only rare performances including one at the Jewish Community Center in Washington, D.C., on 12 July 2008.[16] Three tribute concerts were held in Jerusalem in 2013 to mark her 90th birthday and a compilation of her musical scores was released.

A compilation of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam's work was issued on the Éthiopiques record label. The album, entitled Éthiopiques Volume 21: Ethiopia Song, was released in 2006. Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam also appeared on the 2012 album The Rough Guide to the Music of Ethiopia, and the 2011 album The Rough Guide to African Lullabies. During her life, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam composed over 150 songs for piano, organ, opera, and chamber ensembles.[17]

In popular media edit

In 2019, an ad campaign entitled 'Coming Home' for Amazon’s Echo Auto and Echo Smart Speaker created by advertising agency Wongdoody featured a song by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam titled 'Homesickness'. Her music was featured in the soundtrack of the 2020 documentary Time.[18] Two of her compositions were also featured in the 2021 Netflix movie Passing: 'The Homeless Wanderer' (used in the official trailer) and 'The Last Tears of a Deceased'.[19][20]

Discography edit

Albums edit

  • Spielt eigene Kompositionen, 1963. Reissued by Mississippi Records in 2022.
  • The Hymn of Jerusalem. The Jordan River Song, 1970. Reissued by Mississippi Records in 2022 as Jerusalem.
  • Yet My King Is from Old, Church Of Kidane Mehret, 1972.
  • The Visionary: Piano Solo, Emahoy Tsegue Maryam Music Foundation, 2012.
  • Emahoy Tsegué-Mariam Guèbru, Mississippi Records, 2016.
  • Souvenirs, Modulor Records, 2024 (Originally recorded between 1977 and 1985 / Debut vocal album)

References edit

  1. ^ The Story of the Wind, Ethan Iversons jazz music reviews
  2. ^ Petrusich, Amanda (7 April 2023). "The Otherworldly Compositions of an Ethiopian Nun". The New Yorker. Retrieved 15 April 2023.
  3. ^ Ambo, Alemayehu (2004). In the Lands of Black Lions and White Bears: My Life in Ethiopia and Canada. AuthorHouse. p. 130. ISBN 9781418433796.
  4. ^ Clemency Burton-Hill (2017). Year of Wonder - Classical Music for Every Day. Headline. p. 22. ISBN 9781472254412.
  5. ^ Yibeltal, Kalkidan (2 April 2023). "Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou: The barefoot nun who became Ethiopia's 'piano queen'". BBC. She was born in Addis Ababa in December 1923 into a prominent aristocratic family. Her father was a mayor of the historical city of Gondar in the country's north. Her given name was Yewubdar - Amharic for "the most beautiful one"- a name she used until she was ordained as a nun at the age of 21.
  6. ^ Kontorowicz Aleksander. Virtuelles Schtetl.
  7. ^ "Biography". Emahoy Tsege Mariam Music Foundation. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  8. ^ a b Molleson, Kate (17 April 2017). "The extraordinary life of Ethiopia's 93-year-old singing nun". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Emahoy Tsegue Maryam Guebrou | Emahoy Tsege Mariam Music Foundation". Emahoy Foundation. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  10. ^ a b c AFP. "Celebrated Ethiopian pianist and nun dies aged 99 in Jerusalem". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  11. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (3 April 2023). "Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Nun With a Musical Gift, Dies at 99". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  12. ^ "BBC Radio 4 - The Honky Tonk Nun". BBC.
  13. ^ Hussey, Allison (27 March 2023). "Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Ethiopian pianist and nun, dies at 99". Pitchfork. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  14. ^ "World-renowned classical pianist and composer Emahoy Tsege Mariam dies at 99". Welcome to Fana Broadcasting Corporate S.C. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  15. ^ "Ethiopiques, Vol. 21: Ethiopia Song - Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  16. ^ Magazine, Tadias. "Emahoy Sheet Music Project Launched at Tadias Magazine". Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  17. ^ "Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Ethiopian nun and pianist, dies at 99". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  18. ^ Westfall, Alex (7 October 2020). "How the Cult Classic Recordings of a 96-Year-Old Nun Became the Soundtrack to Garrett Bradley's New Documentary Time". Pitchfork.
  19. ^ McFarland, Melanie (11 November 2021). "Thanks to its stars, "Passing" is a masterpiece of subtle expression, rendered in black and white". Salon. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  20. ^ All 10 songs from the Passing (2021) Soundtrack, retrieved 23 November 2021

External links edit

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