My Mixtape: Maya Dunietz’ 10 pieces ‘with a tender flesh’

Her compositions have been commissioned by artists and ensembles including Meitar Ensemble, Bat Kol Choir and Hyperion Ensemble, whilst her artworks have appeared in institutions including Paris’ Centre Pompidou and the Palais de Tokyo. 

In 2006 Dunietz first encountered the work of Ethiopian composer and pianist Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, and was so enamoured by them that she travelled to find the composer in a Jerusalem monastery. Two years later the pair began to collaborate, and continued to work together until Guèbrou’s death, age 99, in 2023. 

Dunietz has continued to champion Guèbrou’s music and in May 2025 joined forces with the London Sinfonietta’s string ensemble in our Purcell Room, to present a concert of her unique song collection. Ahead of this concert, and to give a flavour of what to expect, Dunietz put together this playlist of pieces she particularly loves that, in her words, each have ‘a tender flesh’. 

Beneath the playlist you’ll find a breakdown of the tracks in which Dunietz explains their inclusion. Enjoy!

‘The Homeless Wanderer’ – Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

This is the first piece I ever heard by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. Rather than try and explain it myself, here are some of Guèbrou’s own words about this song. ‘The homeless wanderer plays on his flute, while he worries about the wilderness around him. At night in the mountains, when people and animals rest after the day, one hears the song of a flute which the little wanderer plays, alone and far from home. The wild animals and snakes do not dare approach him, but listen spellbound to the melody his flute produces, which becomes his protector through the power of the notes. Thus he loses his fear of the nocturnal visitors. They become his friends’.

‘U Plake Mike, U Plake’ – Fatbardha Brahimi

A huge jump to another climate. I love this Albanian song and often go back and listen to this heart melting gentle cry.

‘Reason to Believe’ – Karen Dalton

Another big jump in a different direction, though still very close in terms of their respective ‘heart melting’ aspect. I don’t think that Guèbrou ever heard Dalton’s music but I think she might have liked it. I feel that it’s connected to her frequency, they both turn sorrow into beauty. 

‘Tezeta’ – Mulatu Astatke 

Composer, leader and vibraphone master Mulatu Astatke changed the face of music everywhere with his funky brand new ethio-jazz feel. Astatke is a couple of decades younger than Guèbrou, but is a big admirer of her and grew up listening to her music in Addis Ababa. I was lucky enough to be present when they finally met in the early 2000s. During his Middle East tour Astatke visited Guèbrou at the the Ethiopian monastery in Jerusalem, and we all sat and chatted together.

‘24 Préludes’ – Frédéric Chopin (performed by Martha Agerich)

Guèbrou saw her work as a continuation of the research of Chopin, Schumann and Beethoven whose music she loved very much. In this recording Chopin is played by another queen, the wonderful Martha Argerich.

‘Evening Breeze’ – Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

This recording of Guèbrou’s ’Evening Breeze’ is also from the album Ethiopiques vol. 21. Francis Falceto wrote excellent cover notes for the albums in this series, including, in this case, telling Guèbrou’s fascinating and cinematic life story. 

‘Images: Prelude 2’ – Howard Skempton (performed by John Tilbury)

The feeling of having a tiny ear at the tip of each finger, listening to itself playing – that’s something I’ve only heard in the piano playing of two people; Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou and John Tilbury. 

‘2 Poems’ – Alexander Scribian (performed by Gieseking)

About 12 years ago I went to visit Guèbrou at the monastery in Jerusalem and I played this piece to her on the little upright piano in her bedroom. My bones remember how it felt playing it to her. Guèbrou hadn’t heard of Scribian before that but she really loved the piece.

‘Spring Ode’ – Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou (arranged for strings by me)

‘Spring Ode’ was originally performed by Guèbrou on a foot pumped harmonium in Jerusalem in the 1990s and recorded live to tape. The whole piece is about 40 minutes long, but no score was found for this recorded material. I transcribed and arranged the first half of the recording to a string ensemble, and this recording is from a concert in Paris in 2024.

‘Jerusalem’ – Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

I particularly love this piece and I love playing it in concerts. It sings the song of an old beautiful city carrying immense pain, and it is a prayer for peace and for the ending of war and its immense suffering and cruelness.