Biography
Ashenafi Kebede was an Ethiopian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist, music educator, novelist and poet.He was born in 1938 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to a wealthy family with connections to the imperial court. His mother was of an artistic nature and taught Ashenafi poetry and literature from an early age. His paternal grandfather was a famous hero of the Battle of Adwa and a close confidant of Empress Taitu, his great-grandfather served as a teacher to Emperor Tewodros II.
Ashenafi studied musicology in the United States at the Eastman School of Music (1962). He returned to Addis Ababa, where he served as the first director of the Yared School of Music from 1963 to 1968, and then continued his studies in the United States at Wesleyan University where he earned a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology. During his studies in 1969, he released an LP album entitled "The Music of Ethiopia: Azmari music of the Amharas".
After the overthrow of the government of Emperor Haile Selassie I in 1974, Kebede decided to settle permanently in the United States with his family. He held numerous positions at American institutions, including Assistant Professor and Director of the Ethnomusicology Program at Queens College in New York, Professor of Music, and Director of the Center for African American Culture at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He received many awards as well as grants from the Florida Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Canadian National Music Council, the American Council of Learned Societies, and UNESCO.
In his compositions he combined Ethiopian and Western, as well as Japanese musical ideas. Among his most famous musical compositions are "Peace to Ethiopia", "The Life of Our Nation", "The Shepherds Flute". He was also a prolific writer, he wrote a novel, Confession (1964), articles in ethnomusicological journals, the book Roots of Black Music, and numerous articles in The Chronicler, the magazine of the Center for African American Culture.
Ashenafi was married and had 3 children, he died in Florida on May 8, 1998.