Andlay - Atse Tewodros Project

Andlay is a no profit organization that promotes musical bridges between Ethiopia and Italy.
stand number WOMEX 2016: -1.100, -1.101, -1.83,

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stand number WOMEX 2016: -1.100, -1.101, -1.83, of the British Underground, where Arc Music Records is hosted.

Andlay is the promoter and coordinator of the Atse Tewodros Project collective, coordinate by Gabriella Ghermandi, an Italian-Ethiopian writer, storyteller and singer.
Atse Tewodros Project was created in an effort to bring together Italian and Ethiopian musicians to foster mutual dialogue and artistic creation. The project was started in 2010 in Addis Ababa, as a result of the collaboration between Gabriella Ghermandi, the Ethiopian composer Aklilu Zewdy and Professor Berhanu
Gezaw. It immediately caught the interest of Michele Giuliani, a pianist and composer from Bari,Italy who is the leader of the Reunion Platz Jazz Trio. In 2012, after more than a year of work, the fundraising effort was started. Gabriella Ghermandi and Michele Giuliani decided to take a chance and began fundraising through the crowdfunding platform Produzioni dal basso. Over 130 donations, from individuals and associations, contributed sufficient monies to allow the two artists to bring the Reunion Platz Trio to Addis Ababa. There they met traditional Ethiopian musicians, completed the musical arrangements together, recorded them - in live sessions - and gave their first major concert in the Ethiopian capital at the Italian Cultural Institute (February 2013).
The project is named for one of the most beloved emperors in Ethiopian history: Atse Tewodros.
He was the first emperor who was not of Ethiopian royal descent. He rose to power because of his perseverance and charisma, qualities that charmed the Ethiopian people to the point that they broke with centuries-old tradition and supported his accession to the throne. Atse Tewodros was the emperor who modernized Ethiopia while respecting traditions. He was also the emperor who
fought against Queen Victoria’s army and defended Ethiopian independence in the century of African colonization.
In December 2013, the Atse Tewodros Project self-produced their first CD, now released worldwide as "Ethiopia: celebrating Emperor Tewodros II" through ARC Music on 27th May, 2016. It includes nine songs by Gabriella Ghermandi, Aklilu Zewdie. They are nine musical pieces in which the modes and pentatonic scales of traditional Ethiopian music are combinedwith European instruments played in a jazz style.
"Ethiopia: celebrating Emperor Tewodros II" also includes songs from the Ethiopian Resistance that fought
against the Italian Fascist Regime. By doing so, it reclaims the past, both for the general public and for the individual, it creates a way to describe the course of human and migrant lives and to talk about plural identities.
Atse Tewodros Project has already toured in 2014/2015/2016 in Italy and Ethiopia.

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  • WOMEX 2018
  • WOMEX 2016
  • virtualWOMEX