Gabriella Ghermandi, an Italian-Ethiopian writer, performer, and singer, and Fabrizio Puglisi, a pianist, composer, and improviser, created Addis Abeba cuore africano, blending Ethiopian music with the Garibaldian history of the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento. Their work celebrates the shared human ideals of freedom, altruism, and generosity, transcending borders.
PROTAGONISTS
Gabriella Ghermandi and Fabrizio Puglisi
Gabriella Ghermandi
Gabriella Ghermandi, an Italian-Ethiopian writer, performer, and singer, was born in Addis Ababa in 1965 and moved to Italy in 1979. She now lives in Bologna, her father’s hometown. She has published several short stories in various anthologies and magazines. Her debut novel, Regina di fiori e di perle, has been circulated worldwide, studied at universities across the U.S., Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Europe. In 2012, she founded the Atse Tewodros Project, a musical initiative that brings together Ethiopian and Italian musicians to explore themes of historical memory, tradition, and cultural coexistence.
Fabrizio Puglisi
Fabrizio Puglisi is a pianist, composer, and improviser. He graduated with honors from DAMS Bologna with a thesis on Cecil Taylor. He spent long periods in Amsterdam, collaborating with numerous musicians from the Dutch and international scenes. Puglisi has performed at festivals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Africa, Turkey, India, and Mexico, and has recorded over 40 CDs for European and American labels. His work often crosses into other artistic disciplines, including dance, choreography, and collaborations with actors, writers, poets, directors, and visual artists. He teaches Jazz Piano at the “Frescobaldi” Conservatory in Ferrara and at Siena Jazz University.
COMPOSITION
Addis Abeba cuore africano
This piece merges the three elements of Ethiopian storytelling tradition: singing, narrating, and writing. Gabriella Ghermandi and Fabrizio Puglisi guide us through words and songs to rediscover a childhood place once thought lost, using the pentatonic scales of Ethiopian music. Feeling at home in an unexpected place can be possible, especially when that place embodies a memory of a longing that has spanned a part of the world. The composition speaks of men who fought for their own freedom and that of other peoples, echoing the Garibaldian struggle, which sought to transform subjects into citizens. This is the spirit of the Risorgimento, to which the Museum is dedicated. It is in this setting that the story, otherwise lacking a physical home in Bologna, comes to life.
