KITKA: Press Release: APRIL 27 – 30, 2006: SPIRIT VOICES: A Kitka Cathedral Concert with special guest Tzvetanka Varimezova, Bulgarian Folkloric Soprano

OAKLAND, CA, March 17, 2006 — Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble performs four very special pre-recording session Spirit Voices Cathedral Concerts in intimate Northern California chapels. Spirit Voices is a thrilling collaboration with Tzvetanka Varimezova, one of Bulgaria’s greatest living folk singers. Performances will take place on Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 8:00 PM at First Unitarian Church (685 14th St., Oakland, CA); Friday, April 28, 2006 at 8: 15 PM at Noe Valley Ministry (1021 Sanchez St., San Francisco, CA); Saturday, April 29, 2006 at 7:30 PM at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (2620 Capitol Ave., Sacramento, CA); and Sunday, April 30, 2006 at 3 PM at Saint Joseph’s Cultural Center (410 South Church Street, Grass Valley, CA).

Spirit Voices invites audiences to be immersed in an uninterrupted flow of evocative melodies and sumptuous harmonies from Eastern Europe. Throughout this contemplative sonic experience, the extraordinary voice of Tzvetanka Varimezova will soar above, between, and among the voices of the nine women of Kitka. Following these performances, Kitka and Varimezova will record this program for a fall 2006 CD release, which will be followed by a tour of sacred spaces across America.

Cathedrals and chapels have always served as focal points of music-making and community building, as well as sanctuaries for personal and collective healing. Eastern Europe's geographic position as a crossroads between Western Europe and the Orient has produced an astonishingly rich and varied collection of secular and sacred music suited to such spaces. Spirit Voices will invoke the rich and varied musical cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Islamic, and nature-centered traditions that coexist throughout the region. The concerts will feature traditional and contemporary Balkan, Slavic, and Caucasian (Georgian and Armenian) repertoire sung in more than twelve languages.

TZVETANKA VARIMEZOVA
Bulgarian folkloric soprano Tzvetanka Varimezova was born to a musical family in Pazardzhik, a town in Bulgarian Thrace. She started singing and playing accordion at age 9, and went on to master tambura (folk lute) and piano at the Kotel High School for Folk Music and at the Plovdiv Conservatory. From 1979 to 1996, she performed as a soloist and assistant conductor with the Bulgarian National Folk Ensembles Trakia, Philip Koutev, and Pazardzhik. Since 1989 she has been a soloist and conductor with Cosmic Voices from Bulgaria, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, and Le Grand Voix Bulgares, an ensemble specializing in Bulgarian folk and Orthodox music. She has also performed as part of The Bulgarian Radio Choir and Trio Bojura. With these ensembles and others, she has toured throughout Europe, Russia, Japan, Latin America, and the USA. Since 2001, she has been Kitka’s primary mentor in Bulgarian vocal music and a master artist in residence at University of California, Los Angeles Ethnomusicology Department, where she teaches Balkan singing technique and conducts the UCLA Bulgarian Women's Choir Superdevojche. She is also a faculty member of the East European Folklife Center, Folklore Camp, and Ross Daly’s Labyrinth Music Seminars on Crete. Ms. Varimezova has many solo recordings to her name and is recognized globally for her stunningly brilliant tone quality and her virtuosic and expressive interpretations of the highly ornamented songs from her native Pazardzhik region.

KITKA
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 and A Prairie Home Companion, and All Things Considered. The emotive power of KITKA’s singing has been showcased in a number of film 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 Mystère des Voix Bulgares. Last year, KITKA toured throughout Ukraine and premiered a major new vocal-theater work by Ukrainian composer Mariana Sadovska: The Rusalka Cycle: Songs Between the Worlds. KITKA has recorded six albums on their own Diaphonica record label, most recently Wintersongs (2004).

The singers of Kitka are: Briget Boyle, Shira Cion, Catherine Rose Crowther, Juliana Graffagna, Lily Huang, Janet Kutulas, Eva Salina Primack, Michele Simon, and Natalia Ukrainska.

TICKETS
Information on how to purchase tickets for all four Spirit Voices concerts can be found at http://www.kitka.org or by calling 510.444.0323

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Spirit Voices is supported, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program.

CALENDAR LISTINGS:
Please list under:
MUSIC: Classical/Choral, World/Folk Concerts

Women’s vocal ensemble KITKA presents Spirit Voices
with special guest Bulgarian folk singer Tzvetanka Varimezova

OAKLAND, CA
Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 8:00 PM
First Unitarian Church
685 14th St. (at Castro)
Tickets: $20 advance, $22 door ($3 discount for seniors and students)
Reservations and info: http://www.kitka.org or 510.444.0323
Walk-up Ticket Outlet (no service charges):
Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito, (510) 525-2129

SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Friday, April 28, 2006 at 8:15 PM
Noe Valley Music Series
Noe Valley Ministry
1021 Sanchez St.
Tickets: $20/adv, $22/door
Reservations and info: http://www.noevalleymusicseries.com
or 415.454.0238
Walk-up Ticket Outlets (no service charges):
Streetlight Records, 3979 24th St., San Francisco, (415) 282-3550
Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito, (510) 525-2129

SACRAMENTO, CA
Saturday, April 29, 2006 at 7:30 PM
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
2620 Capitol Ave.
Tickets: $16 general, $12 seniors and students
Reservations and info: http://www.trinitycathedral.org or 916.446.2513

GRASS VALLEY, CA
Sunday, April 30, 2006 at 3 PM
St. Joseph’s Cultural Center
410 South Church Street
Tickets: $15
Reservations and info: http://www.saintjosephsculturalcenter.org or 530.272.4725
Walk-up ticket outlets (no service charges):
The BriarPatch Co-op, 131 Joerschke Dr., Grass Valley, CA
Love Shack Records, 115 ? South Pine, Nevada City, CA
Cherry Records, 916 Lincoln Way, Auburn, CA

Photo editors:
A wide selection of black and white and color photographs of KITKA and Tzvetanka Varimezova are downloadable in high-resolution jpeg format from http://www.kitka.org/press

Entertainment/music editors:
Copies of CDs by Kitka and Tzvetanka Varimezova’s recordings are available upon request. Call (510) 444-0323.

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Shira Cion
Executive Director/Vocalist
KITKA
1201 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Oakland, CA 94612 USA
Tel: 510.444.0323
Fax: 510.444.1013

http://www.kitka.org