Menelik Wèsnatchèw

Menelik Wèsnatchèw started out in 1961 at the Haile Sellassie I Theatre under the brilliant tutelage of Nersès Nalbandian, before joining Girma Bèyènè’s Ras Band in late-1965 / early 1966. He belongs firmly to the modernists who made their first, bold mark in the 1960s. In 1979, he took up a job in Sudan, leaving behind the Wallias Band and the comfort of the Hilton to flee Mengistu’s Ethiopia, and with a brief Egyptian interlude in 1983-85, he remained in exile in the Sudan until the fall of the dictator.