FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 1, 2000

ACCLAIMED WOMEN’S VOCAL ENSEMBLE KITKA PRESENTS
WINTERSONGS

A HOLIDAY CONCERT TOUR IN THE BAY AREA AND BEYOND
DECEMBER 1-9, 2000

Oakland, California, October 30, 2000 -- KITKA, the Bay Area's acclaimed women’s vocal ensemble will present Wintersongs, its first annual winter holiday concert, in San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and San Anselmo. This new program, showcases Eastern European seasonal songs which have been carefully researched and selected by the eight members of the ensemble. Slavic folk carols, meditative Eastern Orthodox choral music, pre-Christian incantations for the longest nights of the year, medieval Sephardic Chanukah songs, pagan ritual music, and songs from Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, and beyond will be performed. In addition, the group will present the world premiere of new work inspired by a Greek folk melody sung for St. Basil's Day, (the first day of New Year) by Janet Kutulas, one of KITKA's co-directors. Kutulas’s work is one of five new works to be unveiled by KITKA this season as part of the ensemble’s New Folksongs Commissioning Project.

Kitka’s Wintersongs tour includes the following Bay Area concert dates:

• Friday, December 1 at 8:00 p.m., Noe Valley Ministry, 1021 Sanchez Street, San Francisco;
• Saturday, December 2 at 8:30 p.m., Music at Trinity, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 81 North 2nd Street, San Jose;
• Sunday, December 3 at 7:00 p.m., Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland; and
• Thursday, December 7 at 8:00 p.m., Stewart Chapel, San Francisco Theological Seminary, Seminary and Kensington Roads, San Anselmo.

In addition to the Bay Area dates, KITKA will also perform Wintersongs at the Shasta Learning Center Auditorium in Redding, CA on Friday, December 8 at 7:30 PM; and in Ashland, OR on Saturday, December 9 at 8:00 p.m. at Rogue Valley Unitarian Fellowship.

"This past year has been a treasure hunt," said executive co-director and vocalist Shira Cion, who with Juliana Graffagna and Janet Kutulas, shares the artistic leadership of KITKA. "Each member of our collective has discovered new material for this concert by working closely with native master folk singers and ethnomusicologists, by listening to rare archival recordings of traditional Balkan and Slavic singers and choral ensembles, or by tracing the seasonal musical legacies of her own ethnic heritage," she said. "To make these Wintersongs concerts even more special, we have consciously chosen intimate -- sometimes jewel-like – venues, all with gorgeous acoustics and a warm, inclusive community feeling."

ENSEMBLE BACKGROUND

Dedicated to continually broadening their repertoire while carrying on the traditions of Eastern European women’s singing, Wintersongs continues the ensemble's rich 21 year musical heritage. Since its inception KITKA, which means "bouquet" in Bulgarian and Macedonian, has grown to earn recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts and Chorus America as one of the finest vocal ensembles in the United States. Through field research and performances in Bulgaria, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine,Macedonia and Kazakhstan as well as in ethnic communities across the U.S., the group has earned a stellar reputation in Eastern Europe. In 1991, KITKA was the first non-Bulgarian group to be invited to perform at the closing ceremony of the National Festival of Bulgarian Folklore at Koprivshtitsa. Broadcast twice throughout Europe by Bulgarian National Television, the Koprivshtitsa concert helped secure Kitka's place as the foremost interpreter of Balkan and Slavic choral repertoire working in the United States.

THE NEW FOLKSONGS COMMISSIONING PROJECT

With major support from the National Endowment for the Art’s Creativity Program and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Multi-Arts Production Fund, KITKA launched its New Folksongs Commissioning Project in January 2000. New Folksongs engages five diverse American composers to write new works that take their inspiration from KITKA’s unique ensemble sound. To date, KITKA has premiered Pauline Oliveros’s site-specific The Space of Spirit for women’s choir, bells, and organ in Grace Cathedral, and Linda Tillery’s Lift Every Voice/I’ll Fly Away written for KITKA and the Grammy-nominated African American women’s ensemble The Cultural Heritage Choir. In addition to Janet Kutulas’s new work on the Wintersongs program, upcoming premieres include new works by composers David Lang and Chen Yi.

KITKA FEATURED IN FILMS, THEATER AND RECORDINGS

Committed to expanding their artistic abilities and the range of their work, KITKA can can be heard on their recent CD Nectar (1999 - Diaphonica), hailed by rock superstar David Crosby as "a true masterpiece", and on Cantigas de Amigo with the acclaimed early music group Ensemble Alcatraz (2000 - Dorian). Their numerous collaborations have ranged from a reconstruction of the medieval pageant Carmina Burana to work with award-winning composer Maurice Jarre on the soundtrack for the film Jacob’s Ladder. Additional film credits include Braveheart, and At Play in the Fields of the Lord, and most recently, Rasputin. Translating their music to the stage, the group acted the roles of the Greek Chorus in the American Conservatory Theater’s 1995 and 1998 productions of Hecuba, sharing top billing with Olympia Dukakis. Their performance earned critical raves on both coasts, as well as a Drama Critics Circle Award nomination. In the words of one critic, "the choice of KITKA as the chorus was inspired . . . gorgeous harmonies, movement and musicality."

The singers of KITKA are: Leslie Bonnett, Shira Cion, Catherine Rose Crowther, Deborah Dietrich, Juliana Graffagna, Janet Kutulas, Ann Moorhead, and Lily Storm.

TICKETS

Tickets for KITKA's Wintersongs performances range from $15-$20. Call (510) 444-0323 for more information or visit http://www.kitka.org. Tickets are also available on-line at http://www.ticketweb.com.

Wintersongs is supported, in part, with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund, The City of Oakland Department of Crafts and Cultural Arts, The California Arts Council, The Alameda County Art Commission, The Zellerbach Family Fund and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

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CALENDAR EDITORS PLEASE LIST:

MUSIC: Classical/Choral & World/Folk

KITKA Women’s Vocal Ensemble
Wintersongs
December 1-9, 2000

A first annual holiday tour featuring seasonal music from a wide variety of Eastern European ethnic and spiritual traditions

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1
8:00 p.m.
Noe Valley Ministry
1021 Sanchez St.
San Francisco, CA
Tickets: $16 adv./$18 door/$15 senior and students
Reservations and information:
(510) 444-0323 or www.ticketweb.com

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2
8:30 p.m.
Music at Trinity
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
81 North 2nd Street
San Jose, CA
Tickets $20 general/$15 seniors and students
Reservations and information:
(408)-293-7953 or www.ticketweb.com

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3
7:00 p.m.
Lake Merritt United Methodist Church
1330 Lakeshore Ave.
Oakland, CA
Tickets: $16 adv./$18 door/$15 seniors and students
Reservations and information:
(510) 444-0323 or www.ticketweb.com

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7
8:00 p.m.
Stewart Chapel
San Francisco Theological Seminary
Seminary and Kensington Roads
San Anselmo, CA
Tickets: $16 adv./ $18 door/$15 seniors and students
Reservations and information:
(510) 444-0323 or www.ticketweb.com

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8
7:30 p.m.
Shasta Learning Center Auditorium
2200 Eureka Way
Redding, CA
Reservations and information:
530/241-5246
(Presented by KCHO/KFPR Northstate Public Radio)

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9
8:00 p.m.
St. Clair Production’s Eclectic Acoustic Music Series
Rogue Valley Unitarian Fellowship
4th and C Streets
Ashland, OR
Tickets: $15 adv./$17 door
Reservations and information:
(541) 482-4154

PHOTO EDITORS: A wide selection of black and white and color photographs of KITKA are downloadable in high-resolution jpeg format from http://www.kitka.org.