HOSTETTER, Kaethe

Kaethe Hostetter is an American violinist, bandleader, composer, and educator, whose music was shaped as much by immersion as by training. Classically trained and forged in the avant-jazz and improvisation scenes in Boston and New York, many years as a circus musician, and deep forays into a variety of folk traditions, she spent twelve years living and collaborating in Ethiopia, absorbing its melodic systems, song forms, and everyday musical life. Her debut solo album Impressions of Ethiopia transforms that experience into a solo, ritual-like performance for violin, live looping, and electronics, where Ethiopian songs are re-imagined and performed as a one-woman show and often accompanied by projections drawn from Ethiopian textiles and street life.