Song of the Day: Tsege Mariam Gebru “Homeless Wanderer”

“Homeless Wanderer” is a gorgeous and typically iconoclastic piano performance from Ethiopian nun, Tsege Mariam Gebru. Gebru is a a nun, living in a convent in Jerusalem (she fled her native Ethiopia in 1984 following ideological conflict with then dictator, Mengistu) who beginning in the late 1960’s began recording her gorgeous piano compositions and performances. Her music is truly unique: while partially rooted in liturgical music and Ethiopian traditional music, her playing almost has more in common with such early 20th century composers as Erik Satie and Claude Debussy. Her music is truly unique and unlike much else you are likely to hear. It is also deeply moving.

She was born Yewubdar Gebru in 1923 in Addis Abeba. Born into a wealthy family she was sent to a boarding school in Switzerland, where she studied violin. In 1933, she returned to Ethiopia to face some terrible hardship. During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War she and her family were taken prisoners of war by the Italians and sent to a prison near Naples. After the war Gebru studied under the Polish violinist Alexander Kontorowicz in Cairo. Kontorowicz was deeply impressed with Gebru and when he went to Ethiopia (after being appointed musical director for the Imperial Body Guard) he employed Gebru as his assistant.

Political turmoil say Gebru flee to Wollo Province where she joined a convent at the age of 19. She was ordained a nun and given the religious title Tsegué-Maryam. The conditions under which she lived in Wollo were extremely harsh and after falling ill several times, she was forced to relocate to Addis Ababa. There she began experimenting and composing with organ and piano, eventually resulting in her beginning to compose and perform. Stories of her music traveled around Ethiopia and beginning in the late ’60s she was given the opportunity to record some of her work.

Gebru is still both a practicing nun and musician at the age of 96. Her music has been collected and reissued as part of the Ehtiopiques reissue series. She was also the subject of a BBC radio documentary entitled, The Honky Tonk Nun in 2017. She also overseas a charitable foundation named for her and financed through her record sales that provides musical education and instruments to disadvantaged children in her native Ethiopia.