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The Concert
Sunday, November 12th, 2006 at 4:00 PM
A Celebration of Sephardic Culture and Music
Honoring Flory Jagoda – The flame of Sephardic Music
Featuring Flory Jagoda
Ramon Tasat
Family and Friends
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November 12, 4:00 pm
Temple Shalom
8401 Grubb Road
Chevy Chase, MD 20815
Reception to Follow
The kick off concert for the 2006 Jewish Folk Arts Festival will celebrate Sephardic music and culture and honor NEA National Heritage Fellow, Flory Jagoda.
The concert will feature renown Sephardic
musicians and local residents, Flory Jagoda and Ramón Tasat,
who will be joined by family and friends for two hours of song, music and
storytelling.
The concert will be held at Temple Shalom, which is co-sponsoring the event with Jewish Folk Arts Festival sponsor Am Kolel. A reception will follow the concert.
Sephardic music, which is usually performed
in Ladino, is a blend of Jewish and Spanish traditions.
The music became a part of the cultural life of Sephardic Jews after they
were expelled from Spain in 1492.
Greece became home to a large Sephardic community as did Turkey, Bulgaria,
and the whole the Balkans area.
For 500 years, the songs kept their history alive from generation to generation.
Both Jagoda and Argentine born Tasat learned their craft at their grandmothers’
knee.
The Altaras Ensemble is a group of professional musicians from the Washington area who have joined Flory Jagoda in preserving the Sephardic musical experience. Altaras Ensemble presents exquisite vocal solos and harmonies, backed by guitars, mandolins and percussion instruments. Their performances illuminate the indomitable spirit that has kept this music alive for over five hundred years.
Steve Bloom has toured in the U.S. and around the world as a performer, composer, recording artist, and lecturer. He is considered an authority on African and related Cuban and Brazilian drumming, as well as Sufi drumming and movement. In 1980, he began ongoing studies of Afro-Cuban bata drumming and Lucimi chanting with Lorenzo Penalbel of Havana. His career includes performances with Tito Puente and shows with Cuban folkloric groups of international renown. In 1995 and 1996, his own group, Havana Select, was twice featured in residencies at the Smithsonian Institute. He is co-founder of the Dance Place, a theater in Washington, D.C. that presents both cutting edge and traditional artists from around the world.
Betsy Cary earned her BA in Art from Virginia Tech and is an avid soccer player and coach. Betsy musical background in madrigal groups and choirs and her close ties with the Jagoda family attracted her to Sephardic music. She sings with Colors of the Flame and studies with Flory Jagoda.
Hazzan Rachel Hersh Epstein has served the Adat Shalom community since 1991. In addition to a life-long love of music and singing, she holds a bachelor's degree in music and masters' degrees in social work and Judaic studies. Hazzan Rachel is equally at home with Jewish folk music, congregational melody, and classical hazzanut. She has been heard in concert with both locally and nationally known musicians and is sought after as a guest performer in concerts of Jewish music. Rachel lives with her husband, Jonathan, and three sons Gabriel, Gideon and Koby, and can be heard, when the children permit it, singing an occasional bedtime lullaby.
Lynn Falk has been an active member of the mandolin community of Greater Washington for 25 years. She has performed with Flory Jagoda and Friends at the Smithsonian Holiday Festivals and other special occasions. Lynn is a charter member of the Classical Mandolin Society of America. She also plays with the Potomac Mandolin Ensemble, the American Balalaika Symphony and the Washington Balalaika Society.
Susan Feltman Gaeta received a BS in Education from Ohio University and is a “Brain Gym” specialist. Susan lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for 8 years where she performed as a jazz and folk musician. After spending a year as the apprentice to Flory Jagoda through the apprentice program of the University of Virginia, Susan has recorded her own CD. Susan performs with Flory and also as an independent artist.
Flory Jagoda – Singer composer Flory Jagoda maintains one of Judaism’s richest cultural traditions through her performances of authentic, as well as original compositions, of Sephardic songs. These songs serve as a lyrical history of the Sephardim, the Spanish and Portuguese Jews who fled the Iberian Peninsula as a result of the Inquisition beginning in 1492. Many of these exiles settled in the Ottoman Empire, including the former Yugoslavia where they and their descendents continued to practice and teach their children the traditions, language and culture they had brought with them.
Ms. Jagoda was born into the musical Altaras family in Sarajevo, Bosnia and learned many of the songs from her Nona (grandmother). She is internationally known as the Keeper of the Flame for her steadfast commitment to continuing her family’s musical heritage. Flory was honored with an NEA National Heritage Fellowship in September 2002 and served as a Master Artist in the Folklife Apprenticeship Program at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. In March 2003 she was the soloist performer in a ceremony at Auschwitz, Poland commemorating the Sephardim who perished there during the Holocaust. She is also the proud recipient of the 2003 Immigrant Achievement Award.
Flory’s music is circulated through 4 recordings (and a 5th with Ramón Tasat) and in The Flory Jagoda Songbook. A documentary about her life, The Key From Spain, has been featured in national and international film festivals.
Betty Jagoda Murphy received her BA in Dance from Adelphi University in NY and a graduate degree in Dance Therapy from NY Medical College. Betty has been singing with her mother as part of Flory Jagoda & Family for many years and is delighted to be part of the Ensemble. Betty is the co-founder of ReGenesis LLC, a new product development company and serves on several boards including Dress For Success and Programs For Parents. She and her husband, Greg live in Montclair, NJ and have a grown son, Josh.
Margie Jervis is an artist and professional stage designer accustomed to being behind the scene rather than on the stage. Margie’s musical talent and long years of involvement with folk music and dancing makes her a natural as a member of the Altaras Ensemble.
Joel Leonard has been involved with the performance of fold music for 30 years, playing mandolin, Russian domra and violin. A devotee of Russian folk music, he was a charter member of the Houston Balalaika Society and founder, president and current board member of the Washington Balalaika Society. For many years he was a lead player with the professional performing ensemble of the WBS, which served as “house band” at the Russian Embassy among many other venues. Joel has taken a lead role din producing and managing major music productions, conventions and festivals, including 6 years with the Northern Virginian Folk Festival.
Alan Oresky, co-founder of the Fabrangen Fiddlers, is a champion bluegrass fiddler. For 34 years he has taught instrumental music in the Prince George’s Co. Public Schools and directs its esteemed Preparatory Orchestra. Alan is recognized throughout the region for his versatility in folk, Jewish and jazz musical traditions.
Ruth Rose is a pianist whose repertoire ranges from the Baroque and Romantic to the contemporary. She has performed extensively in recital, with orchestra and as a chamber musician throughout Europe, Israel, the United States and South America. Ms Rose is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, and recently joined the faculty at the Washington Conservatory. Her CD "Spanish and Latin American piano music" has been released on the Americus label.
Shir Shalom is a volunteer choir, which sings spiritual Hebrew music in all styles, providing musical inspiration for services at Temple Shalom. Its members have also performed in various concerts around the metropolitan area. Shir Shalom is led by Cantor Dr. Ramón Tasat, who has arranged many of the traditional prayers sung by Shir Shalom and drawing on the strengths of this choir’s unique blend of voices.
Eugenia Shiuk was born in Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg), Russia. She graduated from the Sverdlovsk Special Music School for gifted and talented children and studied at the Ural State Conservatoire until she immigrated to the United States. While studying at the conservatory, she played flute and piccolo in the Sverdlovsk Opera Theatre and served as the Director of Woodwinds for the Youth Orchestra in the City Palace for Children, also in Sverdlovsk. Together with the Youth Orchestra, she toured extensively throughout Russia and Bulgaria. Eugenia came to the United States in 1993. Currently living in Gaithersburg, Maryland, she teaches flute and piano and performs as a flautist and vocalist in numerous performances.
Joana Stefanick – Joana’s talents in Israeli folk dancing and ballroom dance lead her to international folk dancing and modern dance. In 1983 she earned her Masters degree in dance from George Washington University where she co-led an Israeli dance group. After several years of studying and performing Flamenco Classical and Regional dance of Spain, Joana began frequent trips to Spain to study with renown dancers there. After directing and teaching in her own Spanish Dance Company, Danza del Rio, Joana is now busy raising Nate and Miya and performs whenever time permits.
Born in Buenos Aires, hazzan Dr. Ramón Tasat learned Ladino, the language of the Sephardic people, at his grandmother’s knee; his style reflects the rich history and drama of this extraordinary culture. Trained in five different countries, he received a doctorate in voice performance from the University of Texas at Austin.
Cantor Tasat has toured Europe with world-renowned Dr. Robert Shaw and has participated in international festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. His most notable appearances include the Kennedy Center Concert Hall; the Israeli Embassy; the Jewish Music Festival of Berkeley, California; Saint Cére, France; Siena, Italy; Helsinki, Finland; Barcelona, Spain; and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
In addition to television and radio appearances, Ramón Tasat has been the recipient of numerous awards including First Place at the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center’s Recital Competition and a National Endowment of the Art’s Grant. His numerous recordings include Fiesta Sefarad, Judeo Spanish Art Songs, Kantikas di Amor i Vida, together with Flory Jagoda and his most recent, Yom She Kulo Shabbat. His published books include Cantata Ebraica, and Sephardic Songs for All.
Ramón Tasat is the Cantor of Temple Shalom, musical advisor of the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Music Festival, board member of the American Friends of Neot Kedumim and the president of Shalshelet: The Foundation of New Jewish Liturgical Music.