“ … peace, love, joy, and justice”
Founded in 2009 by the charismatic Melaku Belay, Ethiopia’s leading dancer and a respected cultural ambassador, who has made his Fendika Cultural Center a global gathering place, Ethiocolor draws deeply from the bardic well of Ethiopia’s diverse heritage. Their revelatory practice is an ecstatic symbiosis of dance and music, of tradition and modernity.
Nourished by diverse Ethiopian music and dance traditions influenced with cross-cultural exchange, Ethiocolor presents energetic, free-spirited sounds and movements that are at once culturally specific and internationally resonant. The band routinely shares the stage with traditional Azmaris* and jazz musicians.
Ethiocolor features twelve performers – four dancers, two singers, and instruments including two percussion sets (kebero drums and konga), masenko (a one-stringed bowed fiddle), krar (a five- or six-stringed lyre), a base krar, and a washint (wooden flute). The ensemble is based at Melaku’s renowned Fendika Cultural Center/Azmari Bet in the Kazanchis neighborhood.
From their dynamic musical background, Ethiocolor regularly tours abroad and their CDs include Ethiocolor (2014), Birabiro (2016), and Dildiy (2023). Invoking ancestral blessings and contemporary experiences, Ethiocolor reveals how Ethiopian music and dance have evolved to transcend time and space. Says Melaku, “We’re here to remind audiences everywhere of our shared human desire and capacity for peace, love, joy, and justice.”
Catch this innovative Ethiopian traditional band every second Friday
@ Fendika Azmari Bet, Kazanchis
* An Azmari is an entertainer who sings and plays traditional string instruments of the Ethiopian Highlands, comparable to medieval European minstrels and bards or West African griots. In Ethiopian culture, an Azmari Bet is a traditional house of music where people go to be entertained, informed, and sometimes playfully insulted by the azmaris who serve as current events commentators while they dance, sing, and play for tips.