CPR Performance Archive

GIVING VOICE 11 - KITKA (USA) [April 2009]
THE RUSALKA CYCLE: SONGS BETWEEN THE WORLDS

WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL, 6PM

“Even God stops to listen when KITKA—unamplified, without sets, props, instruments, or even lyrics most people can understand—opens its collective mouth. The sound is so chillingly beautiful, by anyone’s standards, that the entire audience sits enraptured, most of them with eyes shut.My own eyes flooded with
tears.” Summer Burkes, THE GUARDIAN

Women’s vocal ensemble, Kitka has a unique sound -a sound which explores a vast palette of ancient, yet contemporary-sounding vocal effects that evoke a range of subtle to extreme inner states, instincts, and emotions.

Here they become the Rusalski, the restless spirits of women who inhabit the waters, forests, and fields, luring people to them with their mesmerizing songs and wild laughter. The project was borne out of their field researches, including the songs and oral histories from several small groups of grandmothers who were refugee-evacuees of the Chernobyl catastrophe of 1986.These women are among the few surviving practitioners of Rusalka rituals, rites rooted in a once fertile landscape now contaminated. The irony of their personal connection to both the Rusalki as nature spirits and one of the greatest environmental disasters of our time infused the project with an intense poignancy, urgency, and depth.

Kitka’s appearance at the Giving Voice Festival is made possible by grants from the Trust for Mutual Understanding and USArtist International.

More information on GIVING VOICE 11 - KITKA (USA) can be found at:

Additional documentation on GIVING VOICE 11 - KITKA (USA) can be downloaded at:
Giving_Voice_Brochure_PDF.pdf
Giving_Voice_Application_Form.doc

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