Elilta (Cry of Joy): Ethiopian
Classical Music by Girma Yifrashewa
Elilta (7:06), Ambassel (9:40), Chewata (9:31),
Sememen (9:50), My Strong Will (7:32), The Shepherd with
the Flute (8:50)
Girma Yifrashewa, piano
Doroteya Dimitrova, violin
Lyubomir Nikov, cello
Mikhail Zhivkov, clarinet
Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra
Dian Tchobanov, Conductor
Balkan Multimedia Center (2006)
Girma Yifrashewa has an informative website at: http://www.GirmaYifrashewa.com He is an Ethiopian pianist and composer who has been profiled at AfriClassical.com
for several years, and has often been featured on AfriClassical.
He was born in Addis Ababa October 15, 1967. As a youth he played the
kirar, an Ethiopian instrument. On his first day of music school, at
age 16, he saw a piano for the first time. Girma endured severe
hardships while earning his Master's degree in Piano Performance in
Sofia, Bulgaria, but persevered. Subsequently he became the first
Ethiopian classical pianist to perform widely in Africa. Girma played
in 11 countries on his debut tour of Africa, and has since perfomed
often in Europe, Australia, the U.S. And elsewhere.
We continue to take pleasure from Girma's 2006 CD Elilta.
AfriClassical.com is proud to have a 1-minute audio sample of each of
the 6 tracks on the recording. Four are solo piano; one is a quartet;
and one is an orchestral work with the Sofia Philharmonic, conducted by
Dian Tchobanov. Hear them at the Yifrashewa page or the Audio page.
With this CD, Girma Yifrashewa has demonstrated the feasibility of
incorporating Ethiopian themes within Western classical forms.
We enjoyed interviewing Girma
Yifrashewa in 2009, while he was in Los Angeles for the conference
“Africa Meets North America” at UCLA.
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