Full Name Flora Kabilio Role Singer-songwriter Name Flory Jagoda | Website www.floryjagoda.com Residence Virginia, America Associated acts Tim Sparks | |
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Occupation Musician, singer-songwriter Genres LadinoSephardicSevdalinka Instruments Guitar, vocals, Accordion Albums Kantikas Di Mi Nona (Songs of My Grandmother) Similar People Susan Gaeta, Arkul, Voice of the Turtle, Merima Kljuco, Sarah Aroeste | ||
Oral history with traditional artist flory jagoda
Flory Jagoda (born Flora Kabilio on 21 December 1926) is a Bosnian Jewish born American guitarist, composer and singer-songwriter. She is known for her interpretation of Ladino songs and the Bosnian folk ballads, sevdalinka.
Contents
- Oral history with traditional artist flory jagoda
- Flory jagoda sephardic ladino adio kerida
- Biography
- Albums
- Video
- Bibliography
- References
Flory jagoda sephardic ladino adio kerida
Biography
Born as Flora Kabilio to a Bosnian Jewish family in 1926, she grew up in the Bosnian towns of Vlasenica and her birth city of Sarajevo. She was raised in the Sephardic tradition in the musical Altaras family.
When the Nazis invaded Bosnia in April 1941, 17-year-old Kabilio and her family escaped Bosnia separately before all meeting up again in Italy. While in Italy, she met and fell in love with an American soldier named Harry Jagoda. She arrived in northern Virginia, in the USA as a war bride in 1946. Prior to this, she had been interned on the island of Korčula on the Dalmatian Coast during the war.
The Sephardic community of Sarajevo and its surrounding communities were nearly obliterated during World War II.
Jagoda's recording Kantikas Di Mi Nona (Songs of My Grandmother) consists of songs her grandmother, a Sephardic folksinger, taught her as a young girl. Following the release of her second recording, Memories of Sarajevo, she recorded La Nona Kanta (The Grandmother Sings), songs she herself wrote for her grandchildren.
Now in her 90's, Flory has stated that Arvoliko: The Little Tree, released in 2006, will be her final solo recording. The tree, located in Bosnia, is said to be the only marker of the mass grave of 42 massacred members of the Altaras family. She refers to her four recordings as representing the four musical stages of her life. In 2006 she also released a series of duets with Ramón Tasat, Kantikas de amor i vida: Sephardic Duets.
Ladino is in danger of extinction but it is experiencing a minor revival among Sephardic communities, especially in music. Jagoda is a leader in this revival.
In 2002 she received a Lifetime Honor by the National Heritage Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts for her efforts in passing on the tradition of Ladino music. In 2002, Ankica Petrovic produced a documentary film about Flory and her story. Despite being in her 90's, Flory Jagoda continues to teach, write, and perform concerts.
Albums
Video
Bibliography
The Flory Jagoda Songbook: Memories of Sarajevo. New York: Tara Publications (1993).