My father was a pianist and attached great importance to the higher education of his 5 daughters. I learned to play the piano when I was 4 years old.

I attended the German school in Addis Abeba until 8th grade because I was familiar with the German language since Kindergarten. Since 9th grade the theoretical and practical Music training at the Yared Music School came, where I was able to learn not only to play the piano, but also church music, traditional music, dance, poetry and playing the Krar, a 6 string lyre.

I then did my doctorate in 1999 with a dissertation on the subject of wedding music by the Amara people in the central highlands of Ethiopia. In 2009 my dissertation Aerophone was published in the Instrumentarium the people of east Africa which I wrote at the Martin Luther University in Halle Wittenberg as a scholarship holder of the German Research Foundation. In it I dealt with wind instruments (Aerophone) in the East African culture area, where I was able to visit numerous local peoples and collect relevant materials. The Aerophone were not only examined from their typological and technical aspects, but also from their meaning, function and role in the sociocultural, sociopolitical, historical, religious and ritual point of view. I have participated in many national and international conferences, and given lectures and seminars at various music institutions and universities in Europe and East Africa. I am an active member of several international organizations such as International Council for Traditional Music (ITCM) International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) and the Deutsch-Äthiopischer Studenten- und Akademikerverein e.V. (DÄSAV e.V.). During my studies I also worked at various German institutes. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, which I was able to experience as a major event in my life, I worked at the Treuhand Anstalt. 

Since 2008 I have been working in the administrative department at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC). I work closely with authorities and NGO’s in Ethiopia and usually fly to Ethiopia 1-2 times a year to help shape the construction on site. I am not politically oriented towards parties or people. Thanks to my intensive education, including German in Kindergarten, I hardly had any integration difficulties. Typically German for me is: punctuality, honesty, work ethic, beer, Bockwurst and bread.