Upcoming Kartuli Ensemble events
Saturday 15 November 2008, 7:30 PM:
Grace and St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 123 West 71st Street, New York, NY
Eight singing groups will be featured in a
benefit concert
to support the ongoing work of the
International Red Cross
in areas affected by the war in Georgia:
- The Kartuli Ensemble
- The Other Georgia from Boston, MA
- Dzmoba from Philadelphia, PA
- Brevalo from Williamstown, MA
- Soloist Aurelia Shrenker
- Dedebi, a female choir and
- Gaurmarjos, a male choir, both from Princeton University
- The parish choir of St. Nino's Georgian Orthodox Mission, Brooklyn
Watch this space for more performances!
We still need to schedule a concert at the Russian church in Stamford, CT
that Nana Tatiashvili has been trying to arrange with us for over a year!
Rehearsals
Hudson Valley rehearsals are held sporadically at Glenn's house in Kingston.
Our next rehearsal is not yet scheduled but should be in the second week of April.
Contact
Glenn
for directions and schedule.
For New York City rehearsal information, contact
Jay Longan.
We can still use more singers, tenor and bass, male and female.
If you're anywhere near Poughkeepsie--or NYC, or Minneapolis,
or Boston, or D.C.--or there are three or more of you
who can start a new chapter--and you'd like to join us,
e-mail me
for info and a copy of our
current repertoire.
Recent events:
Sunday 30 April 2008, 3 PM:
St. John's Church
35 Park Street, Williamstown, MA
Together with the Brevalo trio and Carl's new trio Nanina,
we presented a benefit concert for Maia Kachkachishvili,
our friend in Tbilisi who has handled translation and logistics
for two Kartuli Ensemble trips and several other of our members' trips.
Maia is recovering from a brain aneurysm that caused coma and paralysis
this past Christmastime,
and friends all over the world are helping
with her hospital bills of over $10,000.
This concert raised nearly $900 for Maia.
Sunday 23 September 2007, 3 PM:
All Saints Lutheran Church,
133 N. Cross Road, LaGrangeville, NY
Together with an unnamed trio from Williamstown, MA (now named Brevalo)
(Doug Paisley, Silvio Eberhardt, and Carl Linich filling in for Paul McFarland, who was unable to make it),
we presented a benefit concert for the church's capital campaign.
Sunday 10 December 2006, 3 PM:
Pirosmani Restaurant
2222 Ave U,
Brooklyn, NY 11229.
To all the members of the Georgian Ensemble
Dear Friends, I would like to express our love and appreciation for all
you are doing for popularization of the unique Georgian songs in the USA
and invite you to perform the Georgian Folk Songs on Sunday, December
10th, 2006 in Brooklyn at the "Pirosmani" restaurant at 3:00 p.m.
We will do our best to please you with traditional Georgian Cuisine.
In the name of Georgian Immigration
Nana Tatiashvili
We were treated to a wonderful supra with an appreciative Georgian audience.
Sunday 5 November 2006, noon:
NOMAD Festival of Traditional Music and Dance
Wilbur Cross High School,
181 Mitchell Drive,
New Haven, CT
The final report of the festival tells us:
One experiment that succeeded beyond our expectations was
use of the beautiful front foyer as a performance space.
. . .
We were especially pleased with a visit from our old friends,
the Kartuli Ensemble,
who entertained an appreciative SRO audience
with choral music from the Republic of Georgia.
Sunday 27 November 2005, 5:00 PM:
Fondo del Sol Museum,
2112 R St., NW, Washington, DC
Organized by Mark Zuver and Richard Osborne,
Yale Russian Chorus alumni and members of the Kartuli Ensemble performed for
the opening of a presentation of works by artists from
"Iveria" (Georgia) and "Iberia" (Spain and Ibero-America),
followed by a fundraising dinner at a nearby restaurant, La Tomate.
The co-hosts for the reception and dinner were the Fondo Del Sol Museum
and Levan Mikeladze, the Georgian Ambassador to the United States.
Saturday 29 October 2005, 7:30 PM:
Saint Peter's Church,
619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street, New York, NY
In cooperation with
Village Harmony,
we presented a concert of the
Anchiskhati Choir,
one of the premier ensembles in Georgian traditional music
and the leading authorities on Georgian Church music.
We sang a short opening set.
Sunday 17 April 2005, 7 PM:
All Saints Lutheran Church,
133 N. Cross Road, LaGrangeville, NY
This was a benefit concert for Carl Linich's Georgian cousin Natia
whose severe astigmatism required eye surgery
costing about $3000 per eye.
We raised about $300 towards this,
and Natia has since had successful surgery on both eyes.
Natia's mother and Carl have sent us a
letter of appreciation.
We celebrated St. Nino's day with this concert at Kevin's church.
Proceeds from this concert series
benefit repairs to the stained-glass lead
at this historic church serving West Point.
25 January 2004:
Saint Nino's Church
71 South 3 St, Brooklyn, NY
We performed in alternating sets with some of the dancers from
the Dancing Crane for the church's Saint Nino's celebration.
Two women we met there were interested in singing with us,
and together with two people who contacted us a couple weeks later
they've joined up with David Graff and Jay Longan
to form a new NYC chapter of the Ensemble.
NYC weekend 8-9 November 2003:
rehearsal, concert, and Annual Meeting
at Trinity Lutheran Church in Middle Village
In good old-fashioned "Kartuli weekend" style,
we held about 6 hours of rehearsal on Saturday,
and a brief Annual Meeting preceding the 3 PM concert on Sunday.
Jay Longan worked with his church to provide a generous budget
for this concert,
and David Graff and family opened their home
to host a big sleepover in Briarcliff Manor.
Joining us from outside New York State were President Charlie Baum,
Mark Kuprych, David Gillman, and Mark Little,
and returning after long absences were Alex Bialy and Kevin Kirk.
(Let me know if I've forgotten anyone--it's taken me a long time to get this one written up!)
Kvali and the
Georgian Association
presented a celebration of Georgian culture
with a concert of several groups including the Kartuli Ensemble,
a fair of Georgian cultural vendors,
and a theatrical presentation to cap it all off.
5 October 2003:
Festival of Nations, Nashua, NH
Nashua's Sesquicentennial Committee put together this downtown
Festival of Nations as the start of a new annual event.
Glenn, Trish, and Cathy struggled bravely against wind and feedback
on a small outdoor stage to bring a taste of Georgian songs
to a modest but attentive crowd to pave the way for
possibly performing at the Holiday Stroll in coming years.
Iveria performed to a packed classroom at NEFFA this year.
6 December 2002:
Joint concert with
Adiloi
in the Seymour Saint John Chapel at Choate Rosemary Hall,
Wallingford, CT
Carl Linich and David Gillman joined the Hudson Valley chapter in this concert that included a few numbers sung jointly with Adiloi.
First Presbyterian Church
together with the Marlborough on the Hudson Arts Association
presents a free concert of the Kartuli Ensemble
at 7:00 PM on Saturday 23 November.
Refreshments will be offered at intermission.
Offerings of about $250 were collected to benefit the family of longtime friend Koba Khutsishvili of Mtiebi, who died suddenly a couple weeks before this concert.
2-9 October 2002:
International Conference:
Problems of Traditional Polyphony, Tbilisi
Soso Jordania
in Melbourne
sent us advance notice of this event last year:
Although only preliminary information about the conference is available,
several leading ethnomusiclogists from the USA and some European countries
have already expressed their interest in taking part in the conference.
Members of the Organizing Committee also had an idea to invite
Georgian singing ensembles from different countries.
After some preliminary communication,
it is clear that several ensembles are interested in coming to Tbilisi
to perform for the participants of the conference.
We were very late in putting together a group for the conference
and contacting the organizers in Tbilisi, but got a positive response
immediately:
Thank you very much for your e-mail and your wish
to participate in our forthcoming symposium.
We remember your concerts in Georgia very well
and the wonderful acceptance of your ensemble by the Georgian audience.
. . . we shall be very glad to include your Ensemble
in the program of the Symposium.
The Symposium will be held between 2-9 October, 2002.
- 2 October
- Opening Ceremony of the Symposium.
- 8 October
- Closing Ceremony with Gala Concert.
With warmest wishes.
The Organizing Committee
The symposium was very well received, and better attended than was
anticipated--meaning space in the lecture room and concert halls
got very tight!
Eduard Shevardnadze himself spoke at the opening ceremony
and expressed strong support for music in schools
and traditional music in school music programs.
Eleven foreign groups from nine countries gave concerts,
and among those presenting papers were two Kartuli Ensemble members.
Information about the symposium and its participants can be found at
polyphony.ge.
I hope to put together a report of the trip soon; in the meantime,
you can see a few of my pictures.
Six of the group bound for Tbilisi gathered at Jay Longan's church,
Trinity Lutheran Church in Middle Village.
We sang a little on Friday night,
rehearsed a good solid eight hours on Saturday,
and sang during and after the service on Sunday morning.
Tuesday 11 June 2002, 7:30 PM:
concert at Zion Episcopal Church, Wappingers Falls, NY
We originally planned this as a second concert with
Adiloi before their director left for college,
but, unfortunately, they were busier with the end of the semester
than they realized when we first discussed it.
Sunday 9 June 2002, 10:00 AM:
service at Zion Episcopal Church, Wappingers Falls, NY
In advance of our concert at Bill Brooks's church,
we sang "romelni kerubinta" as an anthem for their worship service
and a few songs in the fellowship hour afterward.
A section of the Ensemble gathered
at Richard Osborne's house in Faribault, Minnesota,
and sang at a theological conference at nearby Saint Olaf College
for which Jay Longan was organizing music on Sunday evening.
Iveria performed once again
at the New England Folk Festival Association's big annual festival
at Natick High School.
Saturday 20 April 2002, 2:00 PM:
Joint concert with Adiloi
in the Seymour Saint John Chapel at Choate Rosemary Hall,
Wallingford, CT
Adiloi is a group of kids at
Choate
who e-mailed me out of the blue last fall,
asking for some songs to sing on a concert in three weeks!
A group called Bread and Puppets got them interested in Georgian songs,
and in those three weeks they put together three songs to sing
at a reception after the all-school Parents' Week concert.
Minutes and background
of the meeting are online.
Please continue to pass the word about the Ensemble's new activity
to anybody we've missed!
29 December 2001, 8:30 PM:
Cubbyhole Coffeehouse, 44 Raymond Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY
Our first formal performance in over two years!
We sang a couple songs at an open mic night at the Cubbyhole in October,
and Lee invited us on the spot to do a full concert there.
Admission is free, with a hat passed afterward,
so you have nothing to risk but your time and a good cappuccino.
2001-03-21:
Welcome back!
Yes, it had really been two years since this page was last updated!
Unfortunately, as members moved out of the Hudson Valley,
the Ensemble no longer had a core group to organize concerts.
But the group is back now and expanding its activities.
Back to
Kartuli Ensemble
page
Updated 2005-10-22
Glenn Knickerbocker