Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

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]

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]

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 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]

• 'The extraordinary life of Ethiopia's 93-year-old singing nun' published by The Guardian, 17 April 2017
• "Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou" published by Boing Boing, 19 March 2010
• Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou discography at Discogs