Biography
Ashenafi Kebede (1938–1998) was an Ethiopian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist, music educator and writer whose work played an important role in the development and international study of Ethiopian music.
He was born in Addis Ababa in 1938. Music, poetry and Ethiopian artistic traditions were part of his early cultural environment, and he developed a strong interest in both performance and scholarship.
Kebede studied music in the United States and received a degree from the Eastman School of Music in 1962. After returning to Ethiopia, he became the first director of the Yared School of Music in Addis Ababa, serving from 1963 to 1968 and contributing to the development of formal music education in the country.
He later continued his studies at Wesleyan University, earning an M.A. in 1969 and a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology in 1971. His doctoral research, "The Music of Ethiopia: Its Development and Cultural Setting", became part of his broader effort to document and interpret Ethiopian musical traditions.
Kebede combined academic research with composition. His works drew on Ethiopian musical traditions while also engaging with Western classical techniques and, in some compositions, Japanese musical ideas. Among his best-known works are "The Shepherd Flutist: Ethiopian Symphony", "Peace unto Ethiopia" and "The Life of Our Nation".
He was also a prolific scholar and writer. His publications included studies of Ethiopian traditional music and "Roots of Black Music", a study of African and African-American musical heritage.
Following the political upheavals that accompanied the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, Kebede made his permanent home in the United States. He taught at several American institutions and later became a professor of music at Florida State University, where he also directed the Center for African American Culture.
Ashenafi Kebede died in Tallahassee, Florida, on May 8, 1998.
