| Folk Arts - Master Artist - Asmelash HaileAsmelash Haile currently lives in Seattle. He is of Eritrean descent and learned traditional Eritrean music and dance in a small farming village.
Eritrea is
a country in northeastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, Sudan, and Ethiopia. Annexed as a province of Ethiopia in the 1960s, Eritrea gained official independence in 1993.
Haile learned to play the Kraar, a hand-held harp, while in the hospital recovering from war wounds. Haile is one of few people that still perform traditional Eritrean Kraar songs.
As a recipient of a 2002 Apprenticeship grant, Haile taught his son, Mereb Kiflemarian, to play traditional Eritrean music on the Kraar. Haile’s teachings focused on teaching Mereb to not only play the Kraar, but to also write songs in the Tigrinia language.
Mereb Kiflemarian started to study Eritrean music with his father in 2005. He also knows how to play the bass guitar and hopes to teach other young Eritreans traditional songs and instruments. | |||
