NewsFlame Keeper: Remembering Flory Jagoda
By Jon Lohman We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Flory Jagoda, master Sephardic Jewish singer, musician and composer, on January 29th, at the age of 97. …
EventFilm Screening: Flory’s Flame
We honor the legacy of Nona Flory Jagoda and screen the documentary “Flory’s Flame.”
EventCelebrating Flory Jagoda’s Birthday
Celebrate Flory Jagoda’s birthday in a lunchtime livestream concert with the National Museum of Ameriucan Jewish History.
Sights & SoundsCelebrating Flory Jagoda’s Birthday
Celebrate Flory Jagoda’s birthday in a lunchtime livestream concert with the National Museum of Ameriucan Jewish History.
Sights & SoundsThe Life of Flory Jagoda: the keeper of the flame
Born in 1923 in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Flory Jagoda learned songs from her grandmother, or “Nona” as she calls her, who knew the musical traditions passed down through their Sephardic Jewish …
Sights & SoundsLight the Candles with Flory Jagoda’s internationally loved Hanukkah anthem “Ocho Kandelikas”
As the holidays enter full swing, Christmas songs—ranging from the insipid to the sublime—become a seemingly ubiquitous presence in our lives. Largely buried in a sonic avalanche of sleigh bells, …
NewsSchedule and Special Guests Announced for Apprenticeship Showcase
The Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Showcase at James Monroe’s Highland on May 6 from 12:00 to 5:00pm will welcome Virginia’s 73rd Governor, Ralph Northam, to celebrate the masters and apprentices carrying …
Sights & SoundsSusan Gaeta and Gina Sobel
When the Sephardic Jews were forced into exile from Spain and Portugal in the late fifteenth century, many settled in other Mediterranean countries but preserved their native language, Ladino, and …
Sights & SoundsMemories of Hanukkah: Flory Jagoda’s “Ocho Kandelikas”
As the holidays enter full swing, Christmas songs—ranging from the insipid to the sublime—become a seemingly ubiquitous presence in our lives. Largely buried in a sonic avalanche of sleigh bells, …
Sights & SoundsDale Wise and Lori Sallade
The accordion, a box-shaped instrument first patented in Vienna in 1829, was a folk instrument played largely by commoners. At the turn of the twentieth century, European emigrants took the …
Sights & SoundsApprenticeships Merge: Dale Wise restores Flory Jagoda’s accordion
Flory Jagoda, a master artist of the Sephardic ballad tradition, escaped from Bosnia in 1941. Her only possession was her Hohner Student III accordion. More than seventy years later, Dale …
Sights & SoundsSusan Gaeta: From Her Nona’s Drawer
Flory Jagoda, a 2002 recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, is known as “the keeper of the flame” of the once rich Saphardic Jewish song tradition. Flory sings the songs she learned from her nona (grandmother) as a child in pre-WWII Sarajevo – songs which have been passed down in her family since they fled the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. All of her ballads are sung in Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language dating back centuries.
Susan Gaeta, an accomplished musician in her own right, demonstrates a deep intellectual and personal interest in carrying on this precious traditional art form.
