In both secular and religious song, the dark, sonorous vocal style features haunting three-part harmony unique to Georgia?s Caucasus Mountains, and because there are two sets of siblings in the ensemble, the harmonies are truly striking. The group features two dancers, and dance is an integral part of traditional family singing, so the ensemble?s singers are all trained in dance as well. The music reflects a range of rituals, from grape harvesting to martial arts to Orthodox hymns, and are sometimes accompanied by various lutes, pipes, drums and accordion.
Directed by Ketevan Mindorashvili, Zedashe was founded in the mid 1990s to recover a repertoire suppressed during the Communist era. One of the few mixed-gender performing ensembles in Georgia, they continue now to preserve and revitalize a way of singing threatened by modernization. The ensemble brings culturally unique music we will not hear elsewhere, collected and researched by ensemble members. Even their name, Zedashe, has cultural significance; zedashes are earthenware jugs used for making wine dedicated to venerating ancestors.
Celebrate the release of their CD ?Enduring Fortress? and commemorate the upcoming 20th anniversary of Georgian independence with an evening of song and dance featuring the Zedashe Ensemble at the Glen Echo Town Hall, 6106 Harvard Ave., Glen Echo, MD, co-sponsored by World Music and Dance Institute and the Folklore Society of Greater Washington. Admission is $15. Info and tickets: World Music & Dance Institute, 301.717.4641
Copyright 2018 The Folklore Society of Greater Washington
