meklit has shared the stage with bay area heavyweights, including todd brown (guitar), marcus shelby (upright bass), darren johnston (trumpet), howard wiley (saxophone), prasant radhakrishnan (saxophone), keenan webster (balafone, kora, m'bira), lalo izquierdo (cajon), daniel fabricant (upright bass), rob reich (accordeon), eliyahu sills (upright bass, ney), aaron "babycakes" kierbel (percussion), charith premawardhana (viola), and more!
Influences
stevie wonder--for everything, tom sway-- for teaching me to write songs!, nina simone--for her spells, lila downs -- for her infinite vocal textures, bob dylan--for his poetry, otis redding-- for his longing, virginia rodgrigues--for her vastness of sound and those soaring sustains.... but everything impresses something on you.... feel like i pick up fragments from near everywhere.
Meklit Hadero is a singer, musician, cultural activist and resident artist at the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco. Born in Ethiopia, Meklit has since lived in twelve cities, on three continents, and brings her international, inter-cultural experience to all her creative work. As a solo artist writing original compositions, Meklit draws on her folk, blues, and Ethiopian roots to create her songs. Lyrically focused with intimate, spare arrangements, her music imparts a kind of tenderness towards life, a sweetness that soars.
In April of 2007, the Red Poppy Art House received a grant from the San Francisco Foundation and the Fund for Artists to commission a group of musicians, including Meklit, on the composition of a body of music titled Nefasha Ayer: The Space of In-between. This in-progress body of music explores a transcontinental odyssey of multiple characters that find themselves caught between national identities, cultures, and politics, and brings together traditional Ethiopian rhythms and melodies with Jazz and Hip-hop. Meklit has also been commissioned by the Brava Theater to write music for the new Brian Thorstenson play, "Over the Mountain," which tells the story of artists and dissidents who disappear in politically tumultuous times. The play will premier in April of 2009.
In December of 2007, Meklit released a limited edition pressing of her first recording, titled "Eight Songs," which was produced by Eric Moffat. Seventeen Bay Area artists, including Adrian Arias, Caleb Duarte, Juan Carlos Quintana, Todd Brown, Michelle Muennig, Tania Padilla, Clara Cheeves, Ella Noe, Ashlee Ferlito, Carlos Castillo, Indira Urrutia, Luis Vasquez-Gomez, and Meklit herself, handpainted/collaged/created the covers for this edition. Each individual album is a unique piece of artwork, drawing the visual arts and music into a single, cohesive framework. The limited edition pressing is now sold out, and the second edition, with silkscreened covers by Clara Cheeves, is now available.
Meklit has been profiled three times by the San Francisco Chronicle, once by the quarterly arts journal Hoboeye, and has been interviewed and performed twice on the KPFA morning show. She has played at the Red Poppy Art House, the Bottom of the Hill, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the San Francisco Public Library, La Pena Cultural Center, Amnesia, the Mission Cultural Center, the Bumbershoot Music Festival, the de Young Museum, the Cowell Theater, the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis, the University of the West Indies in Barbados, and has toured in the Pacific Northwest (including Neumos and Town Hall in Seattle). In June of 2009, Meklit is being commissioned for a month-long residency at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.
Meklit, "...is an artistic giant in the early stages... She sings of fragility, hope and self-empowerment, and exudes all three. What's irresistible, above all, is her cradling, sensuous, gentle sound. She is stunning." -SF Chronicle.
Great work! We'd like to help sell your music on AddisTunes.com. Just think of us as an iTunes for the African Music Diaspora. When you have a chance, drop us a line @ info@AddisTunes.com. Until then, keep up the positive energy!!!
