The Swedish pop, jazz and soul sensation, Kristin Amparo, is scheduled to perform on June 13 at African Jazz Village. Amparo is a performer and composer from Stockholm who has been a fulltime musician for more than a decade.
Drawing her musical inspiration from jazz she studied music at Royal College of Music and Urban Music. Her unique voice captivated many hearts. In 2009, she was assigned the Alice Babs scholarship with the motivation: “With captivating charisma and strong feeling for the history of jazz music and to its present Amparo creates heartfelt interpretations and daring improvisations over a wide stylistic spectrum.”
She was the key figure in the award winning music exchange KWAAI, where South Africa and Sweden met in a great musical experiment.
Collaborating with many musicians Amparo moves freely to experiment with many genres. Receiving critical acclaim and award for her musical contribution one of her songs entitled “Your Soldier” was able to hit number one in music charts in Sweden.
Yeketema Hod concert at Italian Cultural Institute
A concert entitled “Yeketema Hod” featuring Somali Italian actress Saba Anglana to be held on June 9 at the Italian Cultural Institute.
On this occasion of the Italian Republic National holiday Saba Anglana will perform featured by Fabio Barovero and Matteo Salvadori. In addition to her performance the stage will be highlighted by the renowned Ethiopian dancer Melaku Belay.
Born in Mogadishu Saba Anglana immigrated to Italy at the early age due to her father’s senior military background who was labeled as a spy by the then Somali regime.
Growing up in Italy Saba began her artistic career in the 1990s as an actress on Italian television. In a popular local TV series entitled La Squadra, she played a policewoman of dual Somali-Italian heritage. In 2007, Saba Anglana released her first studio album entitled Jidka: The Line, in which she mixes the traditional sounds of her native Somalia with contemporary Italian flourishes.
Legendary musician Mesfin Abebe passes away
The renowned legendary musician Mesfin Abebe passed away this week. Renowned with melodious sound and soothing voice he contributed timeless songs such as “Yagnilign Ketero”, “Ayish Ayishna”, “Melkam Lidet and many other songs. Known for being highly passionate and skilled with his guitar, Mesfin was able to spread the idea of playing music with a guitar. Dedicating most part of his life for music, his professional musical career began when he was attending his high school education at Woizero Sihen in Dessie. He was able to tour in different parts of the country with the Woizero Sihen school band. Though his musical contribution is not celebrated he was able to produced 22 albums featured by his box guitar. Due to medical emergency Mesfin was taken to St Paulos hospital on April 1 and where he passed away a day after. Married and a father of one daughter his funeral ceremony was held on April 3 at St Peter and Paul Church in the presence of his family and fans.
Wosene Korsof’s solo exhibition in New York City
Renowned Ethiopian painter Wosene Worke Korosf returns to New York City next week for his latest exhibition at Skoto Gallery, one of the oldest and continuously operating galleries in the US specializing in contemporary African art. Wosene’s upcoming show entitled “Words: You Are Always New”, features his new artwork will be exhibited from June 2 through July 30.
“Wosene’s recent work continues his long standing exploration of the interplay between language, identity, aesthetic beauty and material using the language symbols of Geez-one of the few ancient written systems in Africa-as a core composition element,” skoto Gallery said in a press release. “His work is dense with visual complexity that reflects an awareness of a vast majority of both formal and inherited traditions. He relives words of conventional meanings and, instead explores their aesthetic, sensual, and visual content to speak boldly and clearly to a universal audience.” The press release added: “with Amharic calligraphy, Wosene explores the aesthetic dimension of the script rather than producing legible text.” (Tadias Magazine)