{ "ok" : true, "artist" : { "name" : "Kitka", "page" : "kitka", "description" : "Eastern European women's vocal music", "location" : "CA, USA", "bio" : "Kitka is a professional women's vocal ensemble dedicated to producing concerts, recordings, and educational programs that develop new audiences for music rooted in Eastern European women's vocal traditions. Kitka also strives to expand the boundaries of this music as an expressive art form. Kitka's mission is accomplished through a busy itinerary of live performances, including a San Francisco Bay Area home concert series; regional, national, and international touring programs; community service activities and workshops; in-school programs; radio, television and internet broadcasts; recording and music publication projects; master artist residencies; commissioning programs; and adventuresome collaborations.\n\nHistory\n\nFounded in 1979, Kitka began as a grassroots group of amateur singers from diverse backgrounds who met regularly to share their passion for the stunning dissonances, asymmetric rhythms, intricate ornamentation, lush harmonies, and resonant strength of Eastern European women's vocal music. Under the direction of Bon Singer from 1981 to 1996, Kitka blossomed into a refined professional ensemble earning international renown for its artistry, versatility, and mastery of the demanding techniques of traditional and contemporary Balkan, Slavic, and Caucasian vocal styling. Under the co-direction of Shira Cion, Juliana Graffagna, and Janet Kutulas since 1997, Kitka has grown to earn recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chorus America, and the American Choral Directors' Association as one of this country's premier touring vocal ensembles. In addition, many international musical authorities consider Kitka the foremost interpreter of Balkan and Slavic choral repertoire working in the United States.\n\nKitka has deep ties to Eastern Europe and has traveled there to perform and collect repertoire many times. In 2002, Kitka joined Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares as \"international guests of honor\" for this world-renowned choir's 50th Anniversary Gala at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2005, supported by a major grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Kitka journeyed to Ukraine for a series of performances, international artist-exchange meetings, radio and television broadcasts, and research expeditions in rural villages. Kitka's singers regularly conduct fieldwork in ethnic communities throughout America as well as abroad. Individual Kitka members have researched and collected songs in Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Many of Kitka's singers are also talented composers and arrangers who create original settings of songs they have gathered in the field.\n\nKitka's unique sound and innovative sense of programming has led to dozens of other fruitful collaborations, ranging from a reconstruction of the medieval Carmina Burana pageant for CalPerformances, (Thomas Binkley, director), to work with Hollywood composers and independent film-makers on motion picture soundtracks including Braveheart, Jacob's Ladder, and Queen of the Damned. Other collaborations of note include creating the role of the Greek Chorus/Trojan Slave Women in the American Conservatory Theater's three critically-acclaimed performance runs of Hecuba (Carey Perloff, Director) for which Kitka received a Drama Critic's Circle Award nomination; the creation of Women in Black, a multi-disciplinary work inspired by the international Women in Black Against War Movement (Thais Mazur, choreographer; Katrina Wreede composer) for which Kitka received an Izzie award nomination for best musical contribution to a dance program; and Songs from Mama's Table, a celebration of the commonalties and contrasts between Balkan, Slavic and African American women's singing traditions with Grammy nominees Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir. In March 2007, Kitka, in collaboration with composer Dan Cantrell, Yiddish folk singer, multi-instrumentalist and dancer Michael Alpert; Balkan Romani multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Rumen Sali Shopov; and stage director Aaron Davidman premiered Musical Fortunes, a new song cycle inspired by the intersection of Eastern European Jewish and Romani (\"Gypsy\") cultures.\n\nIn 2000, Kitka received major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation's MAP Fund to launch the New Folksongs Commissioning Project, which engages some of the most exciting voices in contemporary music to write new works that utilize Kitka's wide-ranging sound palette. New Folksongs commissions premiered to date include compositions by Pauline Oliveros, Chen Yi, Dan Cantrell, Marcel Khalife, Janet Kutulas, David Lang, Linda Tillery, Sara Michael, Daniel Hoffman, Raif Hyseni, Thilo Reinhardt, Roy Whelden, Vladimir Zenevitch, Janika Vandervelde, and Richard Einhorn. In 2002, Kitka began work on it's most ambitious commissioning project to date: The Rusalka Cycle: Songs Between the Worlds, a new vocal-theater project directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang, with original music by Ukrainian composer and folk singer Mariana Sadovska. Weaving old Slavic mythology together with contemporary themes, The Rusalka Cycle's premiere performances took place to extraordinary public acclaim at Oakland's Malonga Center in November 2005. The Rusalka Cycle was revived in San Francisco in January 2008 and subsequently toured to the Revolutions International Theater Festival in Albuquerque, NM. A European tour of The Rusalka Cycle is slated for April 2009, with performances at major festivals and venues in Germany, Poland, and Ukraine. In February 2009, Kitka will premiere Richard Einhorn's The Origin, a new oratorio co-commissioned by ARTSwego at SUNY Oswego. Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of Darwin's birth, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, The Origin will be scored for Kitka, symphony orchestra and chorus with film projections by award-winning video artist Bill Morrision.\n\nKitka has released ten critically acclaimed recordings, eight on its own Diaphonica label, most recently Sanctuary: A Cathedral Concert (2008). A new recording and companion songbook Cradlesongs, featuring original settings of traditional lullabies of Eastern Europe, is currently in production and slated for release in May 2009. Kitka's first songbook, a companion to the Wintersongs CD, is in its third pressing and continues to make a significant impact on the international choral music field.\n\nA frequent guest on national radio shows, Kitka has been featured on nationally syndicated programs such as PRI's The World, A Prairie Home Companion, All Things Considered, On Point, The Story, West Coast Live and Performance Today. In January 2008, National Geographic produced a World Music Profile Podcast feature on Kitka's Rusalka Cycle project. In recent seasons, live Kitka concerts were also broadcast widely on the CBC (Radio Canada), and Ukrainian national radio and television. Since the winter of 2006-2007, the live performance film Kitka and Davka in Concert: Old and New World Jewish Music has been broadcast nationally on more than 80 public television stations and has been an award-winning selection at international and Jewish film festivals from Beijing to Toronto.\n\nA frequently occurring symbolic word in Balkan women's folksong lyrics, Kitka means \"bouquet\" in Bulgarian and Macedonian.", "photo" : "https://magnatune.com/artists/img/kitka4.jpg", "web_url" : "https://magnatune.com/artists/kitka/", "albums" : [{ "sku" : "kitka-sanctuary", "name" : "Sanctuary - A Cathedral Concert", "artist" : { "name" : "Kitka", "page" : "kitka" }, "release_date" : "2009-11-21", "genres" : ["World","Vocal"], "vocals" : "vocals", "moods" : ["spiritual","peaceful","meditative","ethereal","reflective","mysterious"], "uses" : ["meditation or yoga","spa or massage","religious or ceremonial","emotional storytelling","podcast background","slideshow or memories"], "energy" : 2, "instrumentation" : ["female vocals","a cappella","resonant acoustic space","eastern european vocal techniques"], "sounds_like" : [], "summary" : "A live, acapella album of Eastern European sacred and secular songs performed by women in a cathedral's natural acoustics, ideal for spiritual, calming, or reflective projects.", "cover" : "https://magnatune.com/music/Kitka/Sanctuary%20-%20A%20Cathedral%20Concert/cover_400.jpg", "web_url" : "https://magnatune.com/artists/albums/kitka-sanctuary/", "api_url" : "https://magnatune.com/api/albums/kitka-sanctuary", "buy_url" : "https://magnatune.com/buy/album?sku=kitka-sanctuary" },{ "sku" : "kitka-rusalka", "name" : "The Rusalka Cycle - Songs Between Worlds", "artist" : { "name" : "Kitka", "page" : "kitka" }, "release_date" : "2009-10-24", "genres" : ["World","Vocal"], "vocals" : "vocals", "moods" : ["dreamy","mysterious","melancholic","ethereal","reflective","spiritual"], "uses" : ["nature documentary","fantasy or medieval","emotional storytelling","meditation or yoga","podcast background","film score"], "energy" : 2, "instrumentation" : ["female vocals","cello","percussion","a cappella"], "sounds_like" : [], "summary" : "An ethereal, dreamlike collection of Eastern European women's vocal music with cello and percussion, ideal for atmospheric, reflective, or mystical media projects.", "cover" : "https://magnatune.com/music/Kitka/The%20Rusalka%20Cycle%20-%20Songs%20Between%20Worlds/cover_400.jpg", "web_url" : "https://magnatune.com/artists/albums/kitka-rusalka/", "api_url" : "https://magnatune.com/api/albums/kitka-rusalka", "buy_url" : "https://magnatune.com/buy/album?sku=kitka-rusalka" },{ "sku" : "kitka-nectar", "name" : "Nectar", "artist" : { "name" : "Kitka", "page" : "kitka" }, "release_date" : "2004-06-07", "genres" : ["World","Vocal"], "vocals" : "vocals", "moods" : ["mysterious","ethereal"], "uses" : ["documentary","travel","nature documentary","emotional storytelling","meditation or yoga","spa or massage"], "energy" : 3, "instrumentation" : ["female vocals","close harmonies","a cappella","eastern european vocal techniques"], "sounds_like" : [], "summary" : "Nectar features Kitka's earthy and ethereal Eastern European women's vocal harmonies on 17 Balkan and Slavic folksongs, ideal for evocative, culturally rich documentary and wellness projects.", "cover" : "https://magnatune.com/music/Kitka/Nectar/cover_400.jpg", "web_url" : "https://magnatune.com/artists/albums/kitka-nectar/", "api_url" : "https://magnatune.com/api/albums/kitka-nectar", "buy_url" : "https://magnatune.com/buy/album?sku=kitka-nectar" },{ "sku" : "kitka-vine", "name" : "The Vine", "artist" : { "name" : "Kitka", "page" : "kitka" }, "release_date" : "2004-06-07", "genres" : ["World","Vocal"], "vocals" : "vocals", "moods" : ["mysterious","ethereal","melancholic","spiritual","reflective","dreamy"], "uses" : ["nature documentary","meditation or yoga","spa or massage","documentary","emotional storytelling","podcast background"], "energy" : 2, "instrumentation" : ["female vocals","lever harp","rebec and vielle","percussion","djembe","cajon"], "sounds_like" : [], "summary" : "An ethereal, spiritually resonant collection of Eastern European women's vocal music with ancient harmonies and subtle instrumental accompaniment, ideal for contemplative or culturally rich media.", "cover" : "https://magnatune.com/music/Kitka/The%20Vine/cover_400.jpg", "web_url" : "https://magnatune.com/artists/albums/kitka-vine/", "api_url" : "https://magnatune.com/api/albums/kitka-vine", "buy_url" : "https://magnatune.com/buy/album?sku=kitka-vine" },{ "sku" : "kitka-wintersongs", "name" : "Wintersongs", "artist" : { "name" : "Kitka", "page" : "kitka" }, "release_date" : "2004-06-07", "genres" : ["World","Vocal"], "vocals" : "vocals", "moods" : ["peaceful","meditative","spiritual","nostalgic","festive","ethereal"], "uses" : ["holiday or christmas","meditation or yoga","spa or massage","documentary","emotional storytelling","religious or ceremonial"], "energy" : 2, "instrumentation" : ["female vocals","a cappella","bells","tambura","accordion","percussion"], "sounds_like" : [], "summary" : "Ancient Eastern European seasonal songs performed a cappella and with traditional instruments by Kitka; richly harmonic, peaceful, and spiritually evocative—ideal for holiday, meditation, or documentary use.", "cover" : "https://magnatune.com/music/Kitka/Wintersongs/cover_400.jpg", "web_url" : "https://magnatune.com/artists/albums/kitka-wintersongs/", "api_url" : "https://magnatune.com/api/albums/kitka-wintersongs", "buy_url" : "https://magnatune.com/buy/album?sku=kitka-wintersongs" }] }, "license" : { "music_license" : "Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 1.0)", "music_license_url" : "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/", "listening" : "Stream the free previews, or buy an album for $8 to download it in MP3, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, OGG or WAV. 100% of the price goes to the musician.", "non_commercial" : "Non-commercial projects may use the music under CC BY-NC-SA 1.0: credit the artist and Magnatune, and share alike.", "projects" : "Magnatune members may use any Magnatune music in their projects, commercial or not (videos, films, podcasts, games, apps, websites, adverts), including work for clients, under the Magnatune Project Licence. Projects released while a member stay licensed for good; new projects need an active membership. Credit is required. TV or radio broadcast, cinema, and background music in shops, restaurants or on-hold lines are not included: license those from the musician. Membership: $10/month, $99/year or $299 lifetime; agents can buy one themselves with MPP at /api/member-pass ($10 month, $99 year, $299 lifetime, one-off).", "projects_status" : "available", "projects_signup" : "https://magnatune.com/member/signup", "royalty_free" : "Membership is royalty-free licensing: no per-video, per-download or per-view fees, for every project created and released while a member.", "youtube" : "YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, podcasts: members may use the clean songs in monetized videos. Members register their YouTube channel (the set_youtube_channel MCP tool, or their account page) so YouTube's Content ID doesn't claim their videos. The free versions carry a spoken Magnatune voice and are non-commercial (CC BY-NC-SA), so they're not for monetized channels or client work.", "details" : "https://magnatune.com/info/licensing", "how_to_credit" : "Name the artist and \"Magnatune\", with a link to the album's web_url." } }