Asnakech Worku – “Une grande dame d’Ethiopie” – a great artist from Ethiopia

Become a fan of Asnakech Worku on facebook: www.facebook.com Download her music: itunes.apple.com Order her CD “Ende Jeruslalem” go to: www.acoustic-music.deAsnakech Worku was born in 1931, in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. Since the times of Emperor Haile Selassie I, she has become a legend in Ethiopian music. Asnakech accompanies herself on the Krar, the small Ethiopian lyre. She bought her first instrument for 25 Cents when she was a child and learned how to play the instrument by watching the Azmari, the Ethiopian musicians that are sometimes compared with the minnesingers and troubadours of the European Middle Ages. Asnakech began performing in small bars and cabarets. But before starting her career as a famous singer and musician, she first started to work as an actress and dancer at the City Hall Theatre in 1952 and later on in 1955 at the Haile Selassie I Theatre, where she started to sing and play the Krar beside her work as an actress. There she worked until her retirement in the late 80s. At that time, Asnakech was the first actress in Ethiopia and the only famous woman beside Mary Armede who played the Krar. For many years she was recognized to be one of the greatest Krar players in Ethiopia. She became the most famous traditional female musician in her home country. Today she is one of the very few artists that helped to develop the Ethiopian cultural scene and deeply influenced it. She is highly respected by the modern artists and the people of her home country …

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