Kitka:
Kitka is an American women's vocal arts ensemble inspired by traditional songs and vocal techniques from Eastern Europe. Dedicated to developing new audiences for music rooted in Balkan, Slavic, and Caucasian women's vocal traditions, Kitka also strives to expand the boundaries of folk song as a living and evolving expressive art form.
Currently celebrating its 31st season, Kitka 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 touring ensemble known for its artistry, versatility, and mastery of the demanding techniques of Balkan, Slavic, and Caucasian vocal styling. The ensemble's wide-ranging performance, teaching and recording activities have exposed millions to the haunting beauty of their unique repertoire.
Kitka has released eleven critically acclaimed recordings, nine on its own Diaphonica label. Cradle Songs, Kitka's most recent release, has been named "One of the Top Ten CDs of 2009" by NPR, and one of the "Most Memorable Internationally-Flavored CDs of 2009" by the Los Angeles Times. A regular guest on national radio shows, Kitka has been featured on nationally syndicated programs such as PRI's The World, NPR's A Prairie Home Companion, All Things Considered, On Point, The Story, West Coast Live, Performance Today, as well as in National Geographic's World Music Profiles. In recent seasons, live Kitka concerts were also broadcast widely on Canadian, Ukrainian, German, Bulgarian, Georgian and Armenian national radio and television. Since the winter of 2006-2007, the live performance film Kitka and Davka in Concert: Old and New World Jewish Music has been broadcast nationally on more than 100 public television stations and has been an award-winning selection at international festivals from Beijing to Toronto.
In the fall of 2010, Kitka traveled to Caucasus Georgia for performances, field work, and cultural exchange activities sponsored by a generous grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. In Georgia, Kitka performed at the Chveneburebi Festivals in Borjomi and Tbilisi, at the 5th International Symposium of Traditional Polyphony at the Tbilisi Conservatory, and on Georgian national radio and television. Cultural exchange activities in Georgia included work with the Akhaltsikhe Girls Choir, and the Ialoni, Chinari, and Tutarchela women's choirs. With the Caucasian Connections project, Kitka looks forward to sharing the fruits of their cultural work in Georgia with their San Francisco Bay Area home community.
www.kitka.org
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 sixty years of experience studying, performing, and teaching the traditional sacred and secular vocal music of Georgia. Kavkasia's pure, authentic sound has been perfected thanks to 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. Trio Kavkasia has released three CDs, Songs of the Caucasus on Well-Tempered Productions, and O Morning Breeze on the Naxos World label, and The Fox and The Lion, on Traditional Crossroads. Kavkasia means "Caucasus" in Georgian.
www.kavkasia.org/
Hasmik Harutyunyan:
One of Armenia’s leading folk singers,Hasmik Harutyunyan is worldrenowned for her work with the Shoghaken Folk Ensemble. Her passionate interpretations of lullabies and songs of longing from historical villages across the Armenian plateau offer a mesmerizing glimpse of a lost world. Drawing inspiration from her ancestors in the province of Mush in Historic Armenia, Hasmik learned many of the songs in her repertoire from old women who had emigrated from Anatolia to eastern Armenia before or during the Armenian massacres of 1915, as well as from their descendants and old song collections.
She graduated from the Department of Vocal Music at the Arno Babajanian School of Music and the Yerevan State Pedagogical Institute. For several years, she worked as a soloist for the Agoonk Ensemble of Armenian National Radio. Hasmik was a soloist on the Music of Armenia folk music recording, performing with the Shoghaken Folk Ensemble. Her voice is also included on Armenia Anthology, Shoghaken’s award-winning CD released in 2002 by Traditional Crossroads. She has performed in concerts in Armenia and Europe, and traveled with Shoghaken to Washington, D.C., to participate in the 2002 Folklife Festival organized by renowned cellist, Yo Yo Ma. Hasmik also participated with several members of the Harutyunyan family in recording three albums of traditional Armenian folk music for Face Music in Switzerland. In 2010 Hasmik Harutyunyan won two prestigious awards, Meritorious Artist of Armenia at the President’s residence in Yerevan and Enchanting Voice of Armenia at the annual Tashir Armenian Music Awards in Moscow.
www.road-to-armenia.com/hasmik/hasmik.html