About TESFAYE LEMMA from the book
The various Ethiopian musical instruments that you see in this booklet have been collected by the private initiation and interest of Ato Tesfaye Lemma, who was the director of the Blue Nile Group of Orchestra Ethiopia.
Apart from possessing wide experience through collecting various kinds of musical instruments from his different tours in Ethiopia, Ato Tesfaye Lemma has acted for the last nine years as Orchestra Ethiopia's music composer and arranger as well as Choreographer and Administrative director. Through his hard, untiring and dedicated endeavors, Ato Tesfaye has thus enabled the Orchestra to be the leading folkloric group in the country.
As a back ground for his creative work, Tesfaye has supervised the formation of Orchestra Ethiopia's extensive collection of traditional instruments and, custumes as well as its Library of tape recordings of folk music from various provinces. He has also led a number of musical research expeditions to remote areas of the empire in search of authentic folk music and dance styles to enrich the Orchestra's reportoir.
In 1969 Tesfaye accompanied Orchestra Ethiopia on a concert tour of the United States, thus introducing Ethiopian music to Americans for the first time. The program Tesfaye prepared for the tour was a great success, winning standing ovations and favourable comment from several prominent newspapers, including the New York times.
In 1970 Tesfaye went to the United states to study music and dance and choreography with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Company in New York and made a tour of large cities with this company to observe tour management as well as backstage production activities, lighting sound etc.
During the academic year 1971-1972 he studied music research and composition at the Indianna University.
As the attached references show, Tesfaye has invariably won the respect and admiration of those with whom he has worked. At twenty six years of age he has become Ethiopia's leading composer In the traditional vain and his Orchestra one of the most popular in the country.
Ato Tesfaye's collection in this booklet consists of musical instruments found in central and Northern Ethiopia (Shoa, Gondar, Gojjam, Wollo, Tigre), Southern Ethiopia (Wollamo, Konso, Gidole), and Southwestern Ethiopia (Wollega, Gambella)
Ato Tesfave will produce another similar booklet containing the rest of the Ethiopian musical instruments in the near future. Till then, make use of this most valuable booklet. |
