Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (Gəʿəz ጽጌ ማርያም ገብሩ; born Yewubdar Gebru, 12 December 1923 – 26 March 2023) was an Ethiopian composer, pianist, and nun. She is generally known as Emahoy, a religious honorific. Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam was born as Yewubdar Gebru in Addis Ababa, on 12 December 1923, to a wealthy Amhara family. Her given name Yewubdar means the most beautiful one in Amharic. Her mother was named Kassaye Yelemtu. Her father, Kentiba Gebru Desta, was a diplomat and the mayor of Gondar, a city in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. In 1929, she was sent with her sister, Senedu Gebru, to a boarding school in Basel, Switzerland, where she studied both piano and the violin. At the time, they were the first Ethiopian girls to receive education overseas. In 1933, Emahoy returned to Ethiopia, attending Empress Menen Secondary School. During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1937), Emahoy and her family were prisoners of war. They were sent by the Italians to a prison camp on the Italian island of Asinara and later to Mercogliano, near Naples. Three of her family members were murdered during this time period. After the war, Emahoy studied under the Polish-Jewish violinist, Alexander Kontorowicz, in Cairo. She returned to Addis Ababa because the hot climate in Cairo was making her ill. Her teacher Alexander Kontorowicz returned with her. When Emperor Haile Selassie appointed him as head of the Imperial Guard band, Emahoy would join Kontorowicz to perform piano compositions for the Emperor. During this time, Emahoy also became the first ever female secretary to work the ministry of foreign affairs in Ethiopia. She was denied permission to attend the Royal Academy of Music by senior official members surrounding Emperor Selassie, who opposed her leaving Addis Ababa. Following this, Emahoy became a nun in 1944, spending a decade living in a hilltop monastery in Addis Ababa, taking the title Emahoy and the religious name Tsegué-Maryam. She left the Addis Ababa convent and returned to her family where she composed music for the violin, piano and organ. With the help of Emperor Haile Selassie, her first record was released in Germany, in 1967. She wrote music in Germany during this time period in order to raise funds for homeless children. In 1984, Emahoy's mother died. She fled Ethiopia, settling in the Kidane Mehret Church in West Jerusalem, where she spent the rest of her life. Emahoy died on 26 March 2023 in Jerusalem, at the age of 99. Her funeral was held at the Kidane Mehret Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, on 31 March 2023, where a piano which had belonged to her was played in tribute. In 2007, The Emahoy Tsege Mariam Music Foundation was set up to help children in need, both in Africa and in the Washington, D.C. metro area, to study music by way of scholarships, camps, and various music-oriented programs. In 2017, BBC Radio 4 released an audio documentary on Emahoy's life entitled The Honky Tonk Nun. As of 2023, a biopic about Emahoy's life entitled Labyrinth of Belonging is being produced by The Emahoy Tsege Mariam Music Foundation.