Flory Jagoda Trio - Sephardic Music

Flory Jagoda (89 years young) is a singer and composer maintaining Judaism's richest cultural traditions through her performance of authentic and original compositions of Sephardic songs. The Sephardic people, their traditions and language (Ladino, or Judeo-Español), originated in Spain and was preserved following the expulsion of 1492. Born into the musical Altarac family in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Flory learned songs from her Nona (grandmother) in the mountain village of Vlaseniça. Flory's original compositions celebrate family, tradition, holidays, and daily life and concerns; many of these songs have become internationally known, especially "Ocho Kandelikas," her Hanukah "counting song." In 2002 she was honored with a National Heritage Fellowship award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and she has served as a master artist in the Folklife Apprenticeship Program for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Her songs are available on four recordings and in The Flory Jagoda Songbook. The Key from Spain, a documentary about her life, has been screened at national and international film festivals. In March 2003 she was invited to sing in in Auschwitz, Poland, at a commemorative program for Sephardim who were murdered there during the Holocaust Howard Bass (lute, guitar, percussion) has performed throughout the United States as a soloist and has been a guest accompanist with vocal and instrumental ensembles throughout the Washington area and beyond. A founding member of La Rondinella, with whom he made three recordings for the Dorian label, he has also performed and recorded with HESPERUS, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Folger Consort, the Baltimore Consort, and the Choral Arts Society of Washington, among others. He works extensively as an accompanist with Sephardic singer/composer Flory Jagoda (and can be heard on her latest recording, Arvolika) and early music singer Barbara Hollinshead ,whom he recorded an album of Elizabethan lute songs and solos entitled Loves Lost... and Found; their new recording of 16th and 17th century French airs de cour and lute solos, Airs de Cour, was released in early 2012. He also performs and records with Trio Sefardi. www.larondinellasephardicmusic.com, www.hollinsheadbass.com, www.triosefardi.com Tiffani Ferrantelli performs on stringed instruments and provides backup vocals. This performance took place on January 20, 2013 as part of the Out of Many multicultural festival of music, dance, and story.