Arba Lijoch
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The Arba Lijoch are a group of 40 Armenian orphans (Amharic: አርባ ልጆች? Arba Lijoch, "forty children") who had escaped from the Armenian genocide in Turkey, and were afterwards adopted by Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, then Crown Prince Ras Tafari.
En route to Europe, Crown Prince Ras Tafari, met the 40 Armenian orphans while visiting the Armenian monastery in Jerusalem. They impressed him so much that he obtained permission from the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem to adopt and bring them to Ethiopia, where he then arranged for them to receive musical instruction.
The Arba Lijoch arrived in Addis Ababa on September 6, 1924, and along with their bandleader Kevork Nalbandian became the first official orchestra of the nation. Nalbandian composed the music for Marsh Teferi (words by Yoftehé Negusé), which was the Imperial National Anthem from 1930 to 1974.
