- Arba Lijoch
The Arba Lijoch are a group of 40 Armenian
orphan s ( _am. አርባ ልጆች Arba Lijoch, "forty children") who had escaped from theArmenian genocide inTurkey , and were afterwards adopted byHaile Selassie I of Ethiopia , thenCrown Prince Ras Tafari.En route to
Europe , Crown PrinceRas Tafari , met the 40 Armenian orphans while visiting the Armenianmonastery inJerusalem . They impressed him so much that he obtained permission from theArmenian Patriarch of Jerusalem to adopt and bring them toEthiopia , where he then arranged for them to receive musical instruction.The Arba Lijoch arrived in
Addis Ababa onSeptember 6 ,1924 , and along with their bandleaderKevork Nalbandian became the first official orchestra of the nation. Nalbandian composed the music for "Marsh Teferi " (words byYoftehé Negusé ), which was the Imperial National Anthem from 1930 to 1974.ources
* [http://yetovbahayer.pbwiki.com/Arba%20Lidjotch%20-%20Forty%20Orphans Yetovbahayer wiki]
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