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Musical journey: lessons begin after piano finally arrives in Ethiopia

Getting a piano to a remote school in Africa was no easy task, but concert pianist Girma Yifrashewa knows its value

Photograph: Genaye Eshetu/Pharo FoundationLast month, in a hall packed with students and their families, he played a combination of European and Ethiopian music on the piano, which had finally arrived after leaving London on an eight-hour flight in early August. The piano was damaged, but I was still happy to have it Girma Yifrashewa Bethel Tsegaye, Pharo’s country director, says: “The school’s purpose is to provide opportunities to girls from a remote part of Ethiopia to access a high-quality and free education. From an early age Yifrashewa played the kirar, a traditional harp-like Ethiopian string instrument, and studied at Yared at 16 before going to the Bulgarian state conservatory in Sofia, until the fall of Ethiopia’s communist regime in 1989 ended his scholarship.

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