Listening to Aida , the Verdi opera, I wondered what indigenous music was from the country Ethiopia. Then I find Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. "Emahoy’s music can be difficult for critics to categorize. It’s occasionally (and somewhat inexplicably) described as blues or jazz (a radio documentary once referred to her as “the Honky Tonk Nun”), though it is more clearly informed by the Western classical canon and ancient liturgical chants. Mostly, her playing evokes the delicacy and grace of early spring: a sparrow alighting on a branch, a wildflower bending toward the sun, a tiny, persistent sorrow. It’s the sort of thing—soothing, meditative, elegant—that immediately softens everyone who hears it." (Amanda Petrusich) Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (1923 – 2023) was an Ethiopian nun who composed music. She was born in an Amhara family. She studied abroad in Switzerland, returned home in 1924. In 1933 she was invited to play for the emperor, Haile Selassie , at his palace, befo...