FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 3, 2005
CONTACT: DAVID HYRY (415) 864-3547 (dahon@aol.com)
The Rusalka Cycle: Songs Between the Worlds:
A new vocal-theater project co-created by KITKA Women’s Vocal Ensemble, composer Mariana Sadovska and stage director Ellen Sebastian Chang
Saturday, November 12 through Sunday, November 20, 2005
(Preview November 11, 8:00 PM)
Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts
1428 Alice Street (between 14th and 17th Streets) Oakland, CA
OAKLAND CA, October 3, 2005 - KITKA celebrates its 25th Anniversary Season with the premiere of THE RUSALKA CYCLE: Songs Between the Worlds, a new vocal-theater work that weaves ancient Slavic folk songs, legends, and rituals together with original vocal and instrumental music composed by Mariana Sadovska in an evocative contemporary theatrical production directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang. Premiere performances will take place Saturday evenings at 8 PM and Sunday afternoons at 2 PM November 12 through November 20, 2005 at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland.
Tickets, priced at $23 in advance, $26 at the door for general admission and $20 in advance, $23 at the door for seniors, students, disabled, and groups of 10 or more can be reserved at http://www.kitka.org or by phone at 510.444.0323. A preview performance, priced at $15 or “pay what you can” will take place on November 11, 2005 at 8 PM, also at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts.
Rusalki are powerful female figures in Slavic mythology and folklore, appearing in many old songs sung throughout Eastern Europe. Enticing, shape-shifting entities that inhabit the waters, forests, and fields, Rusalki lure people to them with their mesmerizing songs and laughter. Rusalki are the restless spirits of women who have died untimely, unnatural, or unjust deaths. They are spinners who regulate human, animal, and agricultural fertility, the cycles of the seasons and the weather. In Slavic peasant culture, the Rusalka is feared, appeased, and celebrated through song, dance, ritual, and storytelling.
THE RUSALKA CYCLE: SONGS BETWEEN THE WORLDS is a multiyear, international project that included a research expedition and tour this past summer to Ukraine. Led by Sadovska, a Ukrainian native, the tour took KITKA to remote rural villages where elder women keep alive ancient Rusalka lore. In these village expeditions, KITKA participated in the festivities and rituals of Rusalnaia Nedelia (Rusalka week), culminating their journey in the village of Havronshchyna for the ritual Provedu Rusalok (the leading of the Rusalki to their underworld homes). While in Havronshchyna, the artists also gathered songs and oral histories from the villages’ inhabitants, many of whom are refugee-evacuees of nearby villages destroyed by the Chornobyl disaster of 1986.
KITKA
Currently celebrating its 25th Anniversary Season, KITKA, which means “bouquet” in Bulgarian and Macedonian, began as a grassroots group of amateur singers from diverse ethnic and musical backgrounds who shared a passion for the stunning dissonances, asymmetric rhythms, intricate ornamentation, and resonant strength of traditional Eastern European women’s vocal music. Since its informal beginning, the group has evolved into an internationally -recognized professional ensemble known for its artistry, versatility, and mastery of the demanding techniques of Balkan and Slavic vocal styling. Through a busy itinerary of live and broadcast performances, recording, educational programs, master artist residencies, commissioning programs, and adventuresome collaborations, KITKA has exposed millions to the haunting beauty of their unique repertoire. The group’s voices have been featured frequently on National Public Radio including special appearances on Performance Today, A Prairie Home Companion, and All Things Considered. The emotive power of KITKA’s singing has been showcased in a number of major motion picture soundtracks, including Jacob’s Ladder, Braveheart, and Queen of the Damned, as well as in the American Conservatory theater’s critically acclaimed productions of Hecuba, starring Olympia Dukakis. In 2002, the group made a historic tour of Bulgaria, where they shared the stage of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia with the world-renowned Bulgarian Women’s Choir Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares. KITKA recently returned from their first tour of Ukraine, where the ensemble’s performances earned vast critical acclaim and wide exposure on Ukrainian national radio and television. KITKA has recorded six albums on their own Diaphonica record label, most recently Wintersongs. The singers of KITKA are: Briget Boyle, Shira Cion, Catherine Rose Crowther, Juliana Graffagna, Lily Huang, Janet Kutulas, Eva Salina Primack, and Moira Smiley.
MARIANA SADOVSKA, composer
Composer-vocal performance artist Mariana Sadovska breathes vigorous new life into the fast-fading folk traditions of her native Ukraine. Having spent more than twelve years collecting archaic songs and rituals in rural villages, she has recently become one of Europe’s most sought-after vocal artists. Her performances combine the elemental power of folk song with avant-garde extended vocal techniques, and physical theater. Ms. Sadovska is also renowned for her work with the world famous Polish experimental/anthropological theater company Gardzienice, with whom she was a principal performer and composer-music director for over a decade. Sadovska’s solo performances have taken her around the world, most recently to Afghanistan, where she was an artist-in-residence at the University of Kabul. Earlier this year, she was invited by Toni Morrision to be an artist-in-residence at Princeton University’s prestigious Artists’ Atelier program. The New York Times writes of Sadovska: “Sometimes a musician has such an inborn desire to communicate that her message naturally becomes universal. The responsibilities, protocol, and tradition of whatever style she is working in just vanish; she replaces them with pure vitality. Such was the case with the Ukrainian singer Mariana Sadovska.”
ELLEN SEBASTIAN CHANG, stage director
Ellen Sebastian Chang is a director, writer, performer, and creative consultant. She began her career as a lighting designer and served as the technical director/designer for The Blake Street Hawkeyes from 1979-1983. Her directorial work is highly influenced by her love of and affinity with the movement, color, and temperature of light and shadow. Chang was the co-founder and artistic director of Life on the Water, a nationally and internationally known presenting and producing organization at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center from 1986 through 1995. She has had successful working relationships with many solo performers, including Awela Makeba, Anne Galjour, Whoopi Goldberg, Holly Hughes, Leonard Pitt, Bill Talen, and Charlie Varon. She recently has directed critically-acclaimed productions of Philip Glass’ opera Akhnaten at the Oakand Opera Theater, Gamelan Sekar Jaya’s Kawit Legong: Prince Karna’s Dream at CalPerformances, and Stagebridge’s Being Something at the Oakland Metro Theater.
###
CALENDAR LISTINGS
List under: Music: Classical/World and Theater
The Rusalka Cycle: Songs Between the Worlds
A new vocal-theater project co-created by KITKA Women's Vocal Ensemble,
composer Mariana Sadovska and stage director Ellen Sebastian Chang
Preview Performance: Friday, November 11, 2005 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, November 12, 2005 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, November 13, 2005 at 2:00 PM
Saturday, November 19, 2005 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, November 20, 2005 at 8:00 PM
Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts
1428 Alice Street (between 14th and 17th Streets)
Oakland, CA
Tickets: General: $23 advance/$26 door
Seniors, Students, Disabled, and Groups of 10 or more: $20 advance/$23 door
Preview Performance: $15 or pay what you can (November 11, 2005 Only)
Reservations and info: 510.444.0323 or www.kitka.org
Photo editors:
A wide selection of black and white and color photographs of KITKA, Mariana Sadovska, and Ellen Sebastian Chang, are downloadable in high-resolution jpeg format from http://www.kitka.org/press
Entertainment/music editors:
Copies of KITKA’s CDs and samples of Mariana Sadovska’s recordings are available upon request. Call (510) 444-0323.
This production is supported, in part, by the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program's New Works/Creative Partnerships Pilot Program, The Creative Work Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller MAP Fund, ArtsLink, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Zellerbach Family Fund.
For more information on KITKA’s Rusalka Cycle Project, visit http://www.kitka.org
