Happy Birthday Emahoy!

Blogger's Note: On this day December 13, 1923 (Tahsas 4, 1916 Ethiopian Calendar) Yewubdar Gebru who later became Emahoy (Mother) Tsigemariam was born in Addis Ababa. To honor the birthday of the beloved Emahoy, I am posting the biographical sketch we have included in Tahsas page of Ethiopian calendar with Biographies 2010 edition. I am also posting a link to a fantastic interview Alula Kebede of VOA Amharic program had with Emahoy and Wzo. Martha Nasibou couple of years ago. Wishing Emahoy a blessed birthday and many more happy & healthy years! 

Emahoy Tsige-Mariam Gebru (1916/‘23 —)

Emahoy (Mother) Tsigemariam was born as Yewubdar Gebru in Addis Ababa to a privileged family. Her father Kentiba (Mayor) Gebru and her mother Kassaye Yelemtu both had a place in high society. At the age of six, Yewubdar along withher sister Senedu Gebru was sent for education to Switzerland,

a country where their father had studied. Both attended a girls‘ boarding school where Yewubdar studied the violin and the piano. She gave her first violin recital at the age of ten. She returned to Ethiopia in 1933 to continue her studies at the Empress Menen Secondary School.

When Fascist Italia invaded Ethiopia, several members of Gebru family went underground to join the resistance against the fascist occupiers. In 1937 members of the Gebru family and young Yewubdar were taken prisoners of war by the Italians and deported to the island of Asinara, north of Sardinia, and later to Mercogliano, near Naples. 

After the war, Yewubdar resumed her musical studies in Cairo, under a Polish violinist named Alexander Kontorowicz. Suffering from the stifling heat of the Egyptian capital, Yewubdar returned to Ethiopia in 1944 accompanied by Kontorowicz.

She served as administrative assistant in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and later in the Imperial Body Guard where Kontorowicz was appointed by Emperor Haile Selassie as music director of the band.

In September 1948, young Yewubdar left Addis Abeba to enter the Guishen Mariam monastery in Wello Province where she had once before visited with her mother. She served two years in the monastery and was ordained a nun in her 20s. She took on the title Emahoy and her name was changed to Tsege-Mariam.

Despite the difficult life in religious order and the limited appreciation for her music in traditional Ethiopian culture, Emahoy worked fervently day and night. Often she played up to nine hours a day and went on to write many compositions for violin, piano and organ concerto.

In the early 1960s, Emahoy lived in Gondar studying the religious music of St. Yared, composer and father of Mahlet, the early Ethiopian religious music. On her daily trips to and from the church, she saw young students in Liturgy known as "Ye-Qolo Temari" sleeping outdoor by the church gate. She soon found out that these students are from faraway places without any means of lodging and had to beg for food from nearby residents in order to pursue their studies at the church. Emahoy was deeply moved by the sacrifices these young people made to study at the church. She did not have money to give these students, but she became determined to use her music to help these and other young people to get education. Hence, the Qolotemaris became the beneficiaries of the sale of her first record which was released in Germany in 1967 with the help of Emperor Haile Selassie. Other recordings followed with

the help of her sister Desta Gebru and the proceeds were used to help an orphanage for children of soldiers who died fighting in the war front.

Emahoy left Ethiopia following her mother's death in 1984 and went to serve the Ethiopian Monastery in Jerusalem, Israel. Emahoy is now 86 years old and she plays the piano at the monastery nearby, she continues to write new solo piano compositions. Emahoy has been recognized by many music critics around the world and there is a growing interest in her life and her music by international media including Le Monde, BBC, and Canada TV.

Sources: This biographical sketch is compiled from the following sources:
http://www.emahoymusicfoundation.org (accessed Aug. 12, 2009)
http://ethiopiques.info/guide/ethiopiquest-bio/ (accessed Aug. 28, 2009)

Listen to fascinating VOA Amharic Program interview of Emahoy about her life & works here

Playlist of Emahoy's solo piano compositions