Girma Yifrashewa will always remember the thrill of receiving his very own piano. It was a surprise gift, but getting it shipped to Ethiopia was no small feat. He endured a tense two-month wait at customs and faced logistical challenges to bring it home.
So, when the Pharo Foundation proposed raising funds in London to purchase a piano for a girls’ boarding school in north-west Ethiopia, Yifrashewa eagerly joined the initiative. Now, the pupils at the Homosha school in Benishangul-Gumuz state have a teaching piano, marking the end of a long journey similar to that of Yifrashewa’s first instrument nearly 30 years ago.
“Music has helped me to live my dream, or even beyond my wildest dreams,” he expresses.
Yifrashewa has built an impressive international career, recently performing at New York’s Carnegie Hall in June. He currently serves as the director of the Ashenafi Kebede Performing Arts Centre at Addis Ababa University.
Last month, in a hall filled with students and their families, he showcased a blend of European and Ethiopian music on the piano, which finally arrived after an eight-hour flight from London in early August. After spending several weeks in a customs hall, the piano made its way to the Pharo Foundation’s office in Addis Ababa, where it remained until the road to Homosha was reopened, following closures due to anti-government violence. It then completed an 11-hour van journey to reach the school.
The foundation’s head of education in Ethiopia, who is also a musician, contacted one of the few piano tuners in the country. He agreed to fly in to restore the instrument’s sound after its challenging journey.
The Homosha school, which opened in 2020, accommodates up to 250 students in a region where less than half of girls are enrolled in secondary education. Musical opportunities in the area are scarce, but now a local pianist will offer regular lessons at the school.
The foundation is collaborating with Addis Ababa University’s Yared School of Music, Ethiopia’s only formal music college, to develop an innovative piano class for the girls.
Bethel Tsegaye, Pharo’s country director, explains, “The school aims to provide girls from a remote part of Ethiopia with access to high-quality, free education. Many students come from households that have faced displacement due to the civil war, and some are orphans.”
After the concert, when the pupils finally met Yifrashewa and eagerly lined up for their first chance to play the piano, he reflected on his own musical journey and his first piano from 1995, when he was 26.
From a young age, Yifrashewa played the kirar, a traditional Ethiopian string instrument, and began studying at the Yared School of Music at 16. He later attended the Bulgarian State Conservatory in Sofia until the fall of Ethiopia’s communist regime in 1989 cut his scholarship short. A Christian group intervened to fund the remainder of his studies in Bulgaria and gifted him his first piano, a Petrof upright, upon graduation.
“The piano was sent to Ethiopia by plane through the Irish Christian Brothers, arriving before I did, as I had returned to Bulgaria to pack my belongings,” he recalls. “I felt very discouraged that this first instrument, which I cherished most, was held at customs for two months because it was classified as a luxury item. I was asked to pay a significant fee, and the uncertainty of its release was particularly disheartening.”
He eventually rented a van to transport the piano to his parents’ home in Addis Ababa’s Kotobe area.
“It was a major celebration for the entire neighborhood since everyone knew how distressing the experience had been for me. Although the piano was damaged after being left outside, I was still thrilled to have it. I eventually found a piano tuner visiting from Nairobi who repaired it for me.”
It wasn’t until 25 years later that he acquired a grand piano as a professional musician.
“That was in 2020,” he shares. This particular piano had a smoother journey, thanks to Yifrashewa’s growing fame, which attracted several sponsors to facilitate its delivery. However, he still holds on to the first instrument that meant so much to him.
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