Georgian Traditional Song Workshop with Zedashe Ensemble
LOCATION: The Randolph County Community Arts Center (2 Park Street, Elkins, WV 26241)
DATE: Tuesday, September 24, 2024
TIME: 6 – 8 p.m.
TICKETS: Free to this season’s Lift Your Voice choir members, $35 at the door for the public
This workshop is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn Georgian polyphonic music directly from culture bearers of this tradition. We will be singing with the 10 members of the Zedashe Ensemble, led by their director Ketevan Mindorashvili. We will learn 2 songs during the evening. The Lift Your Voice choir will continue to rehearse these songs during the rest of the season and will perform them at their final concert in December.
ABOUT ZEDASHE:
Mountainous Caucasus Georgia, situated on historic crossroads on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, has one of the world’s most ancient and arresting three-part harmony-singing traditions. The music features a dark, sonorous vocal quality and startling, unexpected harmonies. Directed by Ketevan Mindorashvili, Zedashe was founded in the mid 1990s to sing repertoire largely lost during the Communist era.
With both men and women singers, Zedashe is one of the few mixed gender performing ensembles in Georgia today and they have developed a highly distinctive sound. Their repertoire includes ancient three-part harmony chants from the Orthodox Christian liturgy, as well as the full range of folk song genres including field-songs, love songs, historical ballads, war dance songs, and ritual circle dances. The latter are sometimes accompanied by the panduri (Kakhetian lute), chonguri (Gurian lute), doli (drum), chiboni (goat-skin bagpipe), and garmoni (Georgian accordion).
The singers are joined by two virtuosic solo dancers who show off the intricate footwork and gestures of varied traditional Georgian dance styles, both lyric and martial.
With her rich and flexible, low contralto voice, Ketevan Mindorashvili has won a wide reputation for her mastery of the intricate, melismatic ornamentation of the traditional songs from her native region of Kakheti. The Ensemble also sings repertoire from other regions of Georgia, in many cases collected first hand from old singing masters, pre-communist publications, or field recordings.
The group’s name is taken from the special earthenware jugs — zedashe — that were buried under the family home for the purpose of making wine. The wine made in a zedashe was especially for the veneration of ancestors and the tapping of the zedashe every year carried great ritual significance.
Besides numerous appearances throughout the Republic of Georgia, Zedashe has toured internationally with appearances at major festivals and universities in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, and the United States. This is Zedashe’s fifth US tour and is again being sponsored by the world music umbrella organization Village Harmony.
Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the incredible music of Georgia!
For Zedashe’s complete itinerary or for more information about the ensemble go to www.zedashe.com.