Dandelion Radio
Dandelion Radio
Dandelion Radio
Home page
Latest station news & Dandelion related events
Dandelion Radio's broadcast schedule
What you can hear in this month's shows
Profiles of our DJs
Tracklist archive for previous shows
Background info and history
Dandelion Radio's Festive 50 results
Dandelion Radio related compilations and releases
Photos of Dandelion staff and events
Sign our guestbook
How to get in touch
Recommended websites
Dandelion Radio is
fully licenced with:
PRS For Music - Performing Right Society PPL - Phonographic Performance Limited
Listen to Dandelion Radio - click here for web player or one of the links to the right to open the audio stream Listen to Dandelion Radio with media players such as Winamp, iTunes & RealPlayer Listen to Dandelion Radio with Windows Media Player

'Broadcast One' - Dandelion Radio's 1st compilation album

NEWS:
Only a few days left to hear our March stream - otherwise go to MixCloud to listen without detailed artist/gig info

Artist Info

Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou

Powered by Audioscrobbler™Born Yèwèbdar Guèbrou on 12 December 1923 in Addis Ababa, into a literary family, Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou in no way belongs to an azmari, or troubadour, heritage but was initially part of Ethiopian high society, a mix of imperial nobility, distinguished civil servants, courtesans and opportunists - a hotbed of power and intrigue, intelligence and glamour. Like her father before her, she was educated in Switzerland where she first learned piano and violin. She returned to Ethiopia in 1933 but in May 1936 Mussolini’s troops occupied Addis Ababa and in early 1937, the young Yèwèbdar and all her family were deported to Italy - several members of this illustrious family had already gone underground to join the resistance against the fascist occupiers.

In Cairo after the war, and under the tutelage of Polish violinist, Alexander Kontorowicz, she was again able to take up her musical studies but, suffering from the stifling heat of the Egyptian capital, Yèwèbdar returned to Ethiopia in 1944. Alexander Kontorowicz made the same journey. This is not insignificant, since Emperor Haile Sellassie immediately
appointed him as his Musical Director, entrusting Kontorowicz with the reorganisation of the Imperial Body Guard Band and with responsibility for organising concert evenings at the Palace. Kontorowicz stands out as one of the foreign teachers who most influenced the development of modern music in Ethiopia.

The Emperor, however, upset that one of his sons wanted to become Yèwèbdar’s benefactor and sponsor her piano studies in England, vetoed this project and Yèwèbdar sank into a deep depression. Her health declined to the point that she was administered the last rites. From then on she withdrew from the world and, in September 1948, secretly fled the capital to become a nun where she took the name Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam. But her health could not survive monastic life, so she agreed to teach in an Addis orphanage and was there able to take up music again. She made several recordings, the proceeds of which were always donated to the poor.
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
Artist biography from last.fm




Some other places to look for information:
last.fm
Discogs
MusicBrainz