Where Our Roots Meet

Join Trio Sefardi and the Elias Ladino Ensemble for an evening of Sephardic music from the Balkans. Trio Sefardi inherited the musical legacy of Flory Jagoda and, through her, the Jews of Sarajevo. The trio will play alongside the Elias Ladino Ensemble, whose musical roots come from Ottoman Monastir, now Bitola in North Macedonia, and have been preserved in America for three generations of the Elias family.

Trio Sefardi member Susan Gaeta has twice been part of our Apprenticeship Program: first, in 2003, as a student to Flory Jagoda, a remarkable musician who made it her life’s work to preserve the songs and stories of Sephardic culture; then, in 2017, as a teacher to Charlottesville singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Gina Sobel.

Gather after Havdalah following International Holocaust Remembrance Day to immerse yourself in the music from these two communities, both destroyed in the Holocaust. The bands’ music honors those we lost in the tragedy and is a testament to those who dedicated their lives to making sure the culture did not disappear, too.

This concert is sponsored by funds from the Virginia Folklife Program and our Flory Jagoda Sephardic Music Fund.