FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
KITKA & TRIO KAVKASIA:
Songs from Beyond the Black Sea
Press Release
Kitka hosts West Coast Debut of internationally acclaimed specialists in traditional polyphony of Caucasus Georgia.
Performances in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Oakland: January 26-28, 2007
Oakland, CA - December 21, 2006
“... exotic, beautifully modulated style... haunting beauty...” — The New York Times
Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble hosts the West Coast debut performances of Trio Kavkasia, an internationally acclaimed ensemble specializing in the ancient and strikingly beautiful traditional harmonies of Caucasus Georgia. Kitka and Trio Kavkasia’s program, entitled Songs from Beyond the Black Sea, will feature material ranging from gentle lullabies, lyrical love songs, and sublime sacred pieces to rowdy dance tunes and robust table and work songs.
Kitka and Trio Kavkasia's performances will take place:
• Friday, January 26 at 8:00 p.m. at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, 1661 15th St., San Francisco;
• Saturday, January 27 at 8:00 p.m. at Holy Cross Church, 126 High St, Santa Cruz; and
• Sunday, January 28 at 5:00 p.m. at The First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St, Oakland.
For tickets and additional information, visit http://www.kitka.org or call (510) 444-0323.
ABOUT GEORGIAN FOLK MUSIC
The dense and powerful polyphonic vocal music of Georgia, a tiny but storied nation in the Caucasus Mountains, runs like a bolt of electricity through the listener who has only heard traditional Western choral music. A traditional Georgian song's three parts relate to each other like a Möbius strip, with unexpected chords, beating dissonances, and ringing unison tones that create richly ornamented textures that do not follow Western rules of tuning, harmony, or melody.
TRIO KAVKASIA
Trio Kavkasia consists of three Americans (Alan Gasser, tenor; Stuart Gelzer, bass and bowed chunir; and Carl Linich, tenor and plucked panduri and chonguri) who together share more than forty years of experience studying, performing, and teaching the traditional sacred and secular vocal music of Georgia. Kavkasia's pure, authentic sound was perfected during numerous extended visits to Georgia. The trio spent 1995 as artists in residence in Tbilisi, the country’s capital, studying and singing with the greatest living masters of Georgian music. Performing at Tbilisi University and appearing often on national television, the trio became famous throughout the country for their mastery of the rich and extraordinarily beautiful music of Georgia. In 1997 each Kavkasia singer was made a State Prize Laureate and was awarded the Silver Medal of the Georgian Ministry of Culture "for profound knowledge of the folk music of Georgia and his role in its popularization around the world." Recent appearances include performances at Lincoln Center in New York City, at the Tbilisi Opera House, and for National Public Radio. This year, Trio Kavkasia celebrates the release of their third CD, The Fox and The Lion, on the Traditional Crossroads label. Previous releases include Songs of the Caucasus on Well-Tempered Productions, and O Morning Breeze on the Naxos World label. Kavkasia means “Caucasus” in Georgian.
KITKA
Currently celebrating its 27th concert 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 beginnings, 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. KITKA’s voices have been featured frequently on National Public Radio including special appearances on Performance Today, All Things Considered, and A Prairie Home Companion. The exotic and emotive power of KITKA’s singing has been utilized 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 toured Bulgaria, where, as “international guests of honor” 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. In 2005, KITKA journeyed to Ukraine to perform and gather traditional songs with the country’s most celebrated folk singers. KITKA’s field research in Ukraine led to the creation of a new vocal-theater piece, The Rusalka Cycle: Songs Between the Worlds featuring original music by Ukrainian composer Mariana Sadovska and stage direction by Ellen Sebastian Chang. The Rusalka Cycle premiered to sold-out houses and wildly enthusiastic public acclaim in Oakland in the fall of 2005. The Rusalka Cycle will be remounted in San Francisco and tour nationally and internationally in the 2007-2008 season.
KITKA has recorded seven albums on their own Diaphonica record label. Their most recent CD, music from The Rusalka Cycle: Songs Between the Worlds, will be released in January 2007 and will be available at all Kitka and Kavkasia performances. Also this winter, a new public television special produced by Forest Creatures Entertainment, Kitka and Davka in Concert: Old and New World Jewish Music, is being broadcast nationwide.
The singers of KITKA are: Zlatka Baneva, Leslie Bonnett, Briget Boyle, Shira Cion, Catherine Rose Crowther, Juliana Graffagna, Phoebe Jevtovic, Janet Kutulas, and Natalia Ukrainska. For further information, visit: http://www.kitka.org.
The collaboration between Kitka and Trio Kavkasia is part of a multi-year master artist residency project entitled Song Routes in A New Land, and is supported, in part, by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The East Bay Community Foundation, and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund.
TICKETS
Ticket prices for Kitka and Trio Kavkasia: Songs from Beyond the Black Sea performances range from $20-$25 Reservations can be made on-line at http://www.kitka.org or by telephone at 510.444.0323. Tickets for all concerts are also available via the brownpapertickets.com 24/7 ticket hotline at 1.800.838.3006.
###
CALENDAR LISTINGS:
Please list under Music: Classical/Choral, World/Folk
KITKA and TRIO KAVKASIA present Songs From Beyond the Black Sea
Traditional Polyphony from Caucasus Georgia
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Friday January 26, 8:00 p.m.
Church of St. John the Evangelist
1661 15th St., San Francisco, CA
Tickets: $22 advance / $25 door
Reservations and information: http://www.kitka.org, or 510.444.0323
or http://www.brownpapertickets.com, 24/7 box office hotline: 1.800.838.3006.
SANTA CRUZ, CA
Saturday, January 27, 8:00 p.m.
Holy Cross Church, 126 High St., Santa Cruz, CA
Tickets: $22 advance / $25 door
Reservations and information: http://www.kitka.org, or 510.444.0323
or http://www.brownpapertickets.com, 24/7 box office hotline: 1.800.838.3006.
OAKLAND, CA
Sunday, January 28, 5:00 PM
First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland, CA
Tickets: $22 advance / $25 door / $20 seniors & students
Reservations and information: http://www.kitka.org, or 510.444.0323
or http://www.brownpapertickets.com, 24/7 box office hotline: 1.800.838.3006.
Photo editors: A wide selection of black and white and color photographs of Kitka and Trio Kavkasia are downloadable in high-resolution jpeg format from http://www.kitka.org/press
Entertainment editors: Copies of CDs by Kitka and Trio Kavkasia are available upon request. Call 510.444.0323. Members of Kitka and Trio Kavkasia are also available for interviews.
###
KITKA
Shira Cion
Executive Director
email: shira@kitka.org
phone: (510) 444-0323
