October 23, 2007
Contact: Sara Leonard
Concert and Production Manager

413/542-2195

AMHERST, Mass.—The Zedashe Ensemble, from the medieval walled city of Sighnaghi in Eastern Georgia, will perform in Buckley Recital Hall in the Arms Music Center at Amherst College on Monday, Oct. 29 at 3 p.m. The concert is free and open to the public; seating is by general admission.

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 four male and three female singers, Zedashe is one of the few mixed-gender performing ensembles in Georgia today. 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 chunir (Svan bowed lute), panduri (Kakhetian lute), chonguri (Gurian lute), doli (drum), chiboni (goat-skin bagpipes) and accordion.

The Zedashe Ensemble’s singers are joined by two virtuosic solo dancers, Eka Taralashvili and Erekli Kanchurashvili, who demonstrate the intricate footwork and gestures of varied traditional Georgian dance styles, both lyric and martial.

The group’s name is taken from the special earthenware jugs—zedashes—that were buried under the family home for the purpose of making wine. The wine made in zedashes was especially for the veneration of ancestors and the tapping of the zedashe every year carried great ritual significance.

For further information, contact the Amherst College Concert Office at 413/542-2195 or visit http://www.villageharmony.org/Zedashe2007.

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