FLORY JAGODA – THE CELEBRATION CONCERT

Coolidge Auditorium, The Library of Congress
Washington , DC

Saturday, SEPTEMBER 21 at 8:00 pm (Free-of-charge tickets will be required from Brown Paper Tickets, available July 20. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/402860

This concert celebrates Flory Jagoda’s internationally recognized career as singer, composer, and teacher of Sephardic song, and will honor her role as «keeper of the flame» for preserving, perpetuating and expanding this venerable Jewish cultural tradition. Musical colleagues from the Washington, D.C. area and beyond will join Jagoda to perform the songs that she has taught them in her quest to transmit her family’s musical heritage and keep it vibrantly alive. The concert will be documented by JEMGLO, an award-winning documentary film company, and will serve as a central element in a film about Flory’s life and music. JEMGLO’s work focuses on Jewish culture in its many global and historical manifestations.

A 2002 recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, presented by the National Endowment for the Arts, Jagoda later served as a Master Artist in the Folklife Apprenticeship Program for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

The concert is being presented under the auspices of the Homegrown Concert Series at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/folklife/.

Tickets Now Available for Once-in-a-Lifetime Event at the Library of Congress:
FLORY JAGODA – THE CELEBRATION CONCERT

At the core of JEMGLO’s documentary
FLORY’S FLAME will be footage from the upcoming CELEBRATION CONCERT of venerable singer and composer Flory Jagoda. The concert will celebrate the 90th birthday of Flory, internationally recognized as «keeper of the flame» for preserving, perpetuating, and expanding Sephardic music. At this once-in-a-lifetime event on the evening of September 21 at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, 20 distinguished musical colleagues of Flory and members of her family will join her on stage to perform the Sephardic songs that she has taught them in her quest to transmit her family’s musical heritage and keep it vibrantly alive.

JEMGLO will be recording the concert, and we would love our friends to attend! Tickets can be reserved at: http://celebrationconcert.brownpapertickets.com or by phone at 1.800.838.3006. There is no charge for performances at the Library of Congress, but reserved tickets are required.

Whether or not you attend, you have the opportunity to send Flory a tribute message that will be printed in the Commemorative Journal for the event. Sponsorship opportunities paying tribute to Flory, defraying the cost of the concert and supporting the documentary are available through the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VfH), a 501(c)(3) charitable tax-exempt organization. A percentage of each donation will also go to The Flory Jagoda Sephardic Music Fund at VfH. Depending on level of sponsorship, donors will have opportunities for priority seating at the concert, listing in the credits of the documentary and other benefits. To send a tribute, please go to  http://virginiafolklife.org/flory-jagoda-concert-confirmation/

A 2002 recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship presented by the National Endowment for the Arts, Flory was a Master Artist in the Folklife Apprenticeship Program for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. In March 2003 she was the soloist in a ceremony at O?wi?cim, Poland (Auschwitz), commemorating the Sephardic Jews who perished there during the Holocaust. She has performed throughout the U.S. and in Bosnia, Croatia, Spain, Austria, Turkey, France, Russia, Canada, and Israel.

Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1923, Flory Jagoda learned many songs from her Nona (grandmother) and other family members, who were known as the «Singing Altara?s.» Her compositions and arrangements have been performed and recorded by singers and groups in the U.S. and Europe, and many are now firmly entrenched in Sephardic song tradition.

Any questions? Please send an email to questions.flory@gmail.com or contact us!