WHERE GREAT SERVICE IS ALWAYS THE STAR OF THE SHOW

Continued from pg. 19

Meklit is an Ethio-American vocalist, songwriter and composer known for her electric stage presence and innovative, deeply personal Ethio-Jazz songs. She writes music steeped in traditional Ethiopian rhythms blended with her singer-songwriter’s poetic core, with floating melodies and dancing grooves that draw on sources as varied as East African music, Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell.

Meklit is now touring her 2021 release Antidote, a six song EP of entirely original music. In addition to featuring her longstanding quintet of bass, drums, percussion and tenor saxophone, Antidote adds the fleet fingers of multi-instrumentalist Kibrom Berhane (piano/keyboard, masenqo, krar). Antidote is an Ethio-Jazz soundtrack to social transformation, a collective celebration as we step into a new era of equity. Its anthem—"Here To Imagine"— invites audiences into wide possibilities for imagining and living the future we want to build together. It's Amharic language song, "Hagere Ethiopia," sings of the unity of Meklit's home country, a call to building bridges across ethnicities and peoples. Its title track, "Antidote," ends with a simple refrain—"you are the antidote." In this body of music, Meklit offers a balm to the social isolation that has spread rampant in this pandemic era. Her live show leaves audiences feeling into magnitude of the shifts we are experiencing, and invites them to dance their way in.

Meklit became a sensation with the release of her 2010 debut On A Day Like This, an enchanting collection featuring her delicately luminous original songs and traditional Amharic melodies. The album received rave reviews and featured coverage on PBS, National Geographic, and NPR, and the singer has been on a meteoric rise ever since.

Meklit’s album When the People Move, the Music Moves Too was named among the best records of the year by Bandcamp and The Sunday Times UK, climbing to the top of the iTunes, NACC, and European World Charts. Her performances have taken her around the world, from Addis Ababa—where she is a full-blown star—to San Francisco, New

York City, Chicago, Nairobi, Cairo, Montreal, London, Zurich, Rome, Helsinki and many more.

Meklit is Chief of Program at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. She is a National Geographic Explorer, a TED Senior Fellow, and a former Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University. She has collaborated with the likes of Kronos Quartet, Andrew Bird, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and musical legend Pee Wee Ellis. She has also been commissioned to create new work by Lincoln Center, MAP Fund, the Center for Cultural Innovation, Meany Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington, Montgomery College and more.

Meklit is the co-founder, host and coproducer of Movement, a new podcast and live show telling stories of music and migration, which debuted in a nationally syndicated broadcast on PRX’s The World. She is the co-founder of the Nile Project, and a featured voice in the UN Women theme song and winner of the 2021 globalFEST Artist Award. Meklit’s music has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, CNN, NPR, Washington Post and many more. She holds a BA in Political Science from Yale University.