Kitka

Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble is an Oakland, California-based all-female vocal ensemble focused on "Eastern European women’s vocal traditions".

Kitka is a professional 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. This mission is accomplished through an Oakland-based home series of concerts and vocal workshops; regional, national, and international touring programs; community service activities; in-school programs; broadcasts; recording and publication projects; master artist residencies; commissioning programs; and collaborations.

Kitka was founded in 1979 as an offshoot of the Westwind International Folk Ensemble. Kitka began as a grassroots group of amateur singers. Under the direction of Bon Singer from 1981 to 1996, Kitka has become professional ensemble that specializes in the techniques of traditional and contemporary Balkan, Slavic, and Caucasian vocal styling. Under the co-direction of Shira Cion, Janet Kutulas and Juliana Graffagna since 1997, Kitka has grown to earn recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chorus America, and the American Choral Directors’ Association.

In 2002, Kitka joined Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares as “international guests of honor” for this choir’s 50th Anniversary Gala at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria. In the summer of 2005, Kitka journeyed to Ukraine and participated in research expeditions to the rural villages in the northwest and east Ukraine under the guidance of Ukrainian singer, actress and composer Mariana Sadovska. This trip also included a series of performances, international artist-exchange meetings, workshops, and radio and television broadcasts. Kitka has been invited to return to Ukraine in Spring 2009 by the Les Kurbas Theatre in Lviv and the Kiev Mohylanka Theater Academy for performances of the Rusalka Cycle. The European premier of the piece will take place at the Giving Voice Festival produced by the Grotowski Institute in Wrocław, Poland.

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