Meklit Hadero stands poised in the spotlight and breaks into a smile as she begins to sing, seamlessly moving from a cool crooning to a dramatic display of vocal acrobatics. Her mesmerizing sound manifests the diverse San Francisco arts scene, with hints of jazz, soul and folk plus a distinct splash of Ethiopian vibrato.

Hadero is precise yet playful, commanding yet carefree — an intriguing blend that’s captured the attention of the audience not only here at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles, but also worldwide.

Born in Addis Ababa and raised in the United States, Hadero called many places home while growing up, including Iowa, New York and Florida. Her parents, both physicians, cultivated an intellectual environment, teaching their daughters to think independently. “They were very clear with us that we could do what we wanted in the world,” Hadero says. “We could say whatever we wanted to say and make whatever impact we wanted to make.”

Shortly after earning a degree in political science from Yale in 2002, Hadero moved to San Francisco. It was there she realized just how she could use her voice to make the impact her parents had encouraged.

“I grew up singing here and there,” she recalls, “but it changed for me in San Francisco. I started meeting different kinds of artists — musicians, visual artists, sculptors — who were thinking about art in a way that asked questions. They were thinking about art and community, and how to connect those two things and strengthen them. That I could sink my teeth into.”

Hadero dove into arts administration, first as an organizer for a street-level festival and then as resident artist at the Red Poppy Art House, where she ran shows and eventually started performing. Her impressive list of residencies and involvement in local arts initiatives would only grow over the years.

In 2009, Hadero became a TEDGlobal Fellow and founded the Arba Minch Collective, a group of Ethiopian musicians, filmmakers, photographers and writers living in North America. “I had learned about this network of Ethiopian artists in the States, and I thought, maybe we need to start having experiences together, so we’re staying connected as a generation to what’s happening in Ethiopia.”

The group took its first trip to Ethiopia in December 2009. Five months later, Hadero released her debut solo album, On a Day Like This…, which garnered international attention and solidified her status as a darling of the San Francisco arts scene — as well as the worldwide Ethiopian community.

Last year, Hadero introduced two vastly different albums. In April 2012, she and Ethiopian-American hip-hop artists Gabriel Teodros and Burntface released a self-described “hip-hop space opera” under the name CopperWire. The group shot a music video for its first single, “Phone Home,” when touring in Gondar, Ethiopia, with the Arba Minch Collective in 2011.

“CopperWire is a metaphor,” Hadero explains. “We’re aliens landing on Earth. In a way, when you’re from somewhere and you live somewhere else, you kind of feel like an alien everywhere you land. But it’s all home.”

In September 2012, Hadero released an album with San Francisco-based musician and friend Quinn DeVeaux. Meklit & Quinn showcases Hadero’s voice on an eclectic mix of covers, from Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made to Love Her” to indie-rock band Arcade Fire’s “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).”

“I’ve never wanted to be pigeonholed into one particular type of sound,” Hadero says. “I find collaboration to be a way to tap into different parts of yourself, because people bring out different sides of you.”

As if touring for two new albums wasn’t enough for 2012, Hadero was selected to continue working with TED as a senior fellow. She also took her interest in the arts and community to a global level, starting the Nile Project, inspired by Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project.

For the Nile Project, Hadero and Egyptian ethnomusicologist Mina Girgis are bringing together musicians from countries along the Nile River in a unique cross-cultural collaboration.

“I’m interested in creating a language of music that’s relevant to the whole region,” Hadero explains. “What does it sound like when an Ethiopian scale meets Ugandan percussion, or when a Sudanese singer sings with a Kenyan bass player? We have a neighborhood defined by an ecological relationship, so what does a neighborhood block party sound like? And how does that relate to the ways that we are with each other outside of music?”

In May 2012, Hadero and Girgis took a scouting trip for the Nile Project, selecting musicians and researching the musical traditions and instruments of each country. In January 2013, the group will meet at the FEKRA Cultural Center in southern Egypt to write music. They will perform around the United States in August 2013 and are planning a tour down the Nile and its source lakes in 2014.

Watching Hadero on stage, it’s hard to imagine that this innovator has anything else on her mind but the pure joy of music. As she closes her eyes and reaches her hands in the air, relishing the first moments of a new song, she creates a sense of awe and connection among the diverse crowd at this Hollywood club. When the Nile becomes her stage, those connections will grow even more meaningful. We suspect it’s a performance you won’t want to miss.