Charles Sutton is a master of the Ethiopian masinko [one-string fiddle]. Sutton learned to play the instrument when he was a teacher in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia in the 1960s. He recently performed in Addis Ababa with his fellow traditional musicians under the Orchestra Ethiopia band. Four former members of the group; including Tesfaye Lemma, Getamessay Abebe, Melaku Gelaw and Sutton teamed up to produce a CD, "Zoro Getem" [reunion] and decided to contribute the proceeds from the sales of the CD to the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at the Addis Ababa University. The group so far has contributed 100, 000 birr. Sutton was born in New York City in 1942 and grew up in Columbus, Ohio. He attended Harvard University as a freshman but took a two-year-leave of absence to study music in Washington D.C. and at the Berkeley College of Music in Boston. In 1964, he returned to Harvard and finished his education with a degree in English. He talks about his music and experience in Ethiopia with the VOA Amharic program’s Alula Kebede. (click the link above to listen to the interview in Amharic)
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