The tour will feature songs and arrangements by Nerses Nalbandian, the Maestro of Ethiopia for decades.  This music hasn't been played for 40 or 50 years.  We are honored to be chosen by Mr. Nalbandian's family and Francis Falceto, the auteur of the Ethiopiques series, to bring these wonderful arrangements back to life, in some cases with the vocalists and instrumentalists who originated them.          An Armenian who grew up in Syria, Mr. Nalbandian was hired by the Emperor Haile Selassie to teach, compose and conduct music in Ethiopia from the 1930s through his death in 1977.  There he joined his uncle Kevork, the first European-style maestro "imported" to help create miliatary bands for the Emperor.  The younger Nalbandian arranged hundreds of songs, trained scores of musicians and ultimately led the orchestra at the Haile Selassie National Theater.
           Mr. Nalbandian was versatile and skilled musician, who began as a violinist until a hand injury redirected his efforts.  He was deeply interested in Anatolian music and in deciphering the Medieval notation of Armenian church music, and wrote a 930 page manuscript on the subject.          Capable of playing almost any band instrument, he also loved conducting choirs, and did so steadily at the St. George Armenian Church in Addis Ababa.  This choir, which still exists, was the first to sing "Africa," the original anthem of the Organization of African Unity, which Mr. Nalbandian wrote.  (E/O leader Russ Gershon has written a new arrangement of this song for the upcoming tour.)  The choir also performed Western classics like the Messiah and Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore.          A fan of Xavier Cugat and Ray Charles, Mr. Naldbandian gave the Theater Orchestra a style influenced by modern American sounds, thereby laying the groundwork for the Ethiopian pop explosion of the 1960s.  He wrote the score for the first Ethiopian film, and music for several musicals.          Mr. Nalbandian was interested in Ethiopian traditional instruments, including the well known masinko and krar, and the little known instruments of the Asosa region of Ethiopia.                   The E/O looks forward eagerly to this unique cross-cultural project, our Pan-American ensemble and Ethiopian collaborators paying tribute to the work of an Armenian musician who found a home in Ethiopia, as the E/O has found a creative home there.