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Sunday June 4, 2023
Emerson Avenue Salonlines Proudly Presents
a Live YouTube Broadcast
– A “hybrid” concert –
Trio Sefardi
Howard Bass, guitar, lute
Susan Gaeta, voice, guitar
Tina Chancey, bass viol, Renaissance violin, rebec, Pontic lyra
Ian Pomerantz, voice
Sephardic Favorites with a New Voice
Trio Sefardi returns to the Emerson Avenue Salon series this Sunday for an evening of traditional Sephardic songs, and brings the “luminous bass-baritone” Ian Pomerantz along for his debut on our series. The trio guarantees that this concert will be unlike any that they have presented on our series in their past appearances.
Ian Pomerantz is a specialist in baroque repertoire, but he also is an expert in Sephardic and other Jewish musical styles. A former member of the Boston-based Sephardic ensemble, Voice of the Turtle, and a descendant of a family that traces its roots back to pre-Expulsion Spain, Ian is a dynamic performer who will also add his skills as a percussionist and plucked-string player to the trio’s mix.
The program will include dialogue songs, a common feature of Sephardic traditional music, in which Ian and Trio Sefardi’s lead vocalist, Susan Gaeta, will trade compliments and (mild!) insults. As is customary with the trio, there will be songs from the repertoire of the late Flory Jagoda, their friend and mentor, along with others from Balkan and Turkish sources. The program will highlight Tina Chancey’s wizardry on an array of bowed string instruments, and Howard Bass will add his usual harmonic skills on lute and guitar.
Trio Sefardi celebrates the musical heritage of the exiled Jews of Spain, the Sephardim. Trio members Susan Gaeta (vocals/guitar), Tina Chancey (bass viol, Renaissance violin, rebec, Pontic lyra), and Howard Bass (guitar/lute) are dedicated to bringing the vibrant past into the living present and to continuing the musical traditions of those who created and sustained Sephardic song traditions over the centuries. They performed extensively with their mentor, the Bosnian-born singer/composer and 2002 National Heritage Fellowship honoree Flory Jagoda, and with La Rondinella and the Western Wind. Trio Sefardi has performed at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, Piccolo Spoleto, Center for Jewish History (NYC), Richmond Folk Festival, and at synagogues, JCCs, and on concert series up and down the East Coast. They have made four CDs, most recently “Rikordus: Remembering Flory Jagoda.”
Biographies
Ian Pomerantz is “the possessor of a remarkable instrument naturally at home in many genres, – in opera, in recital, and in oratorio.” A specialist in the Baroque repertoire and an expert in the performance Jewish music, he will be releasing two highly anticipated major recording projects; Russian, Romani, and Jewish Romances with guitarist Oleg Timofeyev, and Art Songs of the Jewish Diaspora, with pianist Byron Schenkman.
Recent and upcoming performance highlights include Every Voice: The Jewish Voice with Handel and Haydn Society; Il Mostro d’Alcina in Caccini’s Alcina with Boston Early Music Festival; Easter in the German Baroque with Three Notch’d Road, Bloch’s Sacred Service with Masterworks Chorale, Getro in Pasquini’s I fatti del Mose nel deserto with Academy of Sacred Drama; Dalla Guerra Amorosa’s Virtuoso Cantatas for Bass, with Byron Schenkman and Friends at Benaroya Hall in Seattle; the premiere of Legrand’s La Chûte de Phaëton, Aquilon Music Festival; Amours et Distances at the American Church of Paris in France; Jewish Music from the Italian and German Baroque with The Miryam Ensemble in Boston; Stradella’s Ester with New York Sanctuary Concerts. He is the artistic director of the acclaimed ensemble Les Enfants d’Orphée, specializing in French Baroque chamber music for voice.
Howard Bass is a founding member of Trio Sefardi, and was a founding member of the early and Sephardic music ensemble, La Rondinella, with which he recorded three CDs for the Dorian label. He performs programs of Renaissance music for voice and lute with mezzo-soprano Barbara Hollinshead and was an accompanist for Sephardic singer-composer Flory Jagoda for many years. In addition to three CDs with Barbara Hollinshead and three with Trio Sefardi, Howard has performed and recorded with HESPERUS, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Folger Consort, the Baltimore Consort, and the Choral Arts Society of Washington, among others. Howard was a program producer at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the National Museum of the American Indian for three decades before retiring at the end of 2010. www.hollinsheadbass.com; www.triosefardi.com
Tina Chancey brings a wide array of musical influences to her interpretation of Sephardic music, including traditional music, early music, jazz, and popular song. She worked extensively with Flory Jagoda (who died last year at the age of 97), known as the Keeper of the Flame of Sephardic song. Tina is a performer, arranger, teacher, recording producer and writer. For 40 years, Tina has played: Viola da gamba, Pardessus de viole, Medieval fiddles: vielle, rebec & kamenj, Renaissance violin and Irish and Old Time fiddle on roots music from Medieval, Renaissance & Baroque to Sephardic, Appalachian, British & Spanish Colonial, Irish and Balkan.
Susan Gaeta performs as both a soloist and as part of several musical endeavors and projects. She enjoys singing and playing an eclectic mix of music on guitar. As a founding member of Trio Sefardi, she has performed many times at Emerson Avenue, most recently with the Midway Jazz Trio. Ann Midgette wrote in the Washington Post, “Gaeta’s voice is compelling”.
Paul Douglas Michnewicz, Director of Arts and Culture, Reston Community Center writes:
“We thank you for such a lovely performance yesterday at the CenterStage. Your music was beautiful, your stories you told were insightful, and your evocation of Flory made all of us who knew (or knew of) her feel as though she was with us.”
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