The classically trained musician was associated with the jazz genre and spent her life in a convent. She will remain in death as much as in life a figure of beautiful contradictions. Her legacy as a ...

Biruktawit Tasew's fingers glide over the strings of the begena, producing a deep, hypnotic sound. Along with six fellow musicians, she breaks into a solemn religious melody, holding their audience ...

Rivaling Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Franco, Tabu Ley Rochereau, and a handful of others, Mulatu Astatke ranks among the most influential African musicians of all-time. I was in Boston, lecturing for ...

Getting a piano to a remote school in Africa was no easy task, but concert pianist Girma Yifrashewa knows its value Girma Yifrashewa will never forget the exhilaration of receiving his own piano. It ...

One of the country's oldest instruments, the begena was once reserved for the elite -- and effectively banned during the Marxist Derg regime between 1974 and 1991. Biruktawit Tasew's fingers glide ...