A vocal workshop exploring ritual rain-calling and fertility songs from Eastern and Central Serbia with Svetlana Spajić, live from Belgrade.
ABOUT THIS EVENT
The Kitka Institute is pleased to partner with the East European Folklife Center to present our first "Vocal Ecology" Virtual Artist Residency featuring Serbian traditional singer and contemporary performance artist Svetlana Spajić.
Over the course of 3 weekends, Svetlana and special guests will present 4 online vocal workshops, a lecture demo, and a special intimate house concert.
The first workshop in the series explores songs connected the Serbian rain-calling and fertility rituals of krstonoše and dodole from the villages of Sesalac in Eastern Serbia and Jarmenovci in Central Serbia.
In historical Serbia, every community had a zapis, or Holy Tree. This tree was the most sacred spot in the village. A ritual procession around the Holy Tree, called krstonoše, included prayers for rain and abundant crops. Krstonoške songs are closely related to earlier pagan dodole songs (rain-calling chants) and they are often sung in similar glas (melodic vocal patterns).
ABOUT SVETLANA SPAJIĆ
Svetlana Spajić is internationally renowned for her work researching, teaching, and performing Serbian traditional singing. She specializes in the unique techniques and meanings of microtonal a cappella song forms. Over the last 25 years, she has roamed the Balkans, studying with the greatest village singers of the elder generation. Her collaborators include many greats of global traditional music and the contemporary avant-garde including Hronis Aidonidis, Domna Samiou, Yanka Rupkina, Cherifa Kersit, Stella Chiweshe, Marina Abramović, Robert Wilson, Zeitkratzer, Antony and the Johnsons, Sainkho Namtchylak, William Basinski, Urs Leimbgruber, and many others.
The songs Svetlana Spajić performs are, on one hand, uncompromisingly traditional, and on the other hand, completely in step with the research of avant-garde composers and musicians working with microtonality - music that frees our ears from the limitations of tempered Western Classical scales. These are songs that link us to an ancient world where the sacred, the profane, and the secular are all intertwined. These are old songs that carry a timeless resonance for the turbulence and challenges of 21st-century life.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
"In less than a century, mankind has managed to destroy an immense abundance of the Earth, and brought us to the verge of planetary destruction. Our ancestors wisely participated in a circle of life, connecting with nature's cycles and creatures through song and ritual. These songs reflect a world in which humanity was merely a humble part of the universe, expressing its responsibility for existence through thoughts, words, and actions. The songs presented in this series will guide us to a more intimate dialogue with the Earth, and strengthen our will to live more responsibly in relationship to the entirety of Creation." - Svetlana Spajić
The suggested donation for this workshop is $20, but feel free to contribute more or less as you are able. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Those who are able to pay more will help make this event accessible to those of more limited means.
Registrants will receive links to Zoom workshops and workshop materials folders in a registration confirmation message from Eventbrite.