Two years after the successful musical cooperation at the 16th ICES in Trondheim, Norway in 2007, when Ethiopian musicians visited Norway, the musicians meet again in Addis Ababa. As a part of a institutional cultural cooperation project between NTNU and AAU, sponsored by the Norwegian embassy, musicians from Norway are currently visiting Addis Ababa.
National Theatre
On Monday 2 November the Norwegian Embassy hosted a concert in the National Theatre. Ten Norwegian musicians joined by five Ethiopian musicians and two dancers performed mainly traditional Norwegian and Ethiopian music before a very enthusiastic audience.
One of the guests at the concert, resident representative of Norwegian Church Aid Hans Birkeland who has lived in Ethiopia for nearly 30 years, said about the concert:
- We went to the concert at the National Theatre and were impressed by the great entertainment. It is very well done by the Norwegian and Ethiopian musicians to play so well together. Also, the fact that the Norwegian singers performed in the Ethiopian languages of Amharic, Oromo and Tigrinya made a great impression. Thank you to the Norwegian embassy for inviting us!
Concert at the National Theatre. Photo: Camilla S. HansenWorld Music at the Gazlight, Sheraton
Several hundred ICES conference participants and other guests gathered Tuesday night at fashionable Gazlight at the Sheraton hotel. Norwegian, Ethiopian, Eritrean, West-African and South African music was part of the repertoire, topped by a guest performance by Ethiopian Azmari singer from Gonder, Selamnesh Zennene, belonging to the Enzata people.
Inspiring for the future
Informing and creating awareness about Norwegian-Ethiopian cultural cooperation motivates future exchange of musical expressions. During the stay the Norwegian musicians will make a joint music production with Ethiopian performers. For sharing experiences, inspiration and building capacity between the institutions, teachers and students, several workshops will take place at Yared Music School in the coming days.
- I consider this enterprising cooperation as another example of the existing wideranged cooperation between our two countries. The musical cooperation reflects the strong cultural expression of both countries, ambassador Jens-Petter Kjemprud says.
As part of the cooperation with the 17th ICES, the Norwegian embassy also co-hosted a reception dinner for the conference participants together with the German and Japanese embassies at the Japanese residence.