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“She feels it, and that’s how you sing Ladino songs, the only way, you put the soul in it.”
Flory Jagoda on Susan Gaeta

Celebrate and explore the music of the international Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) singer, Susan Gaeta, who toured the world and apprenticed with the “Keeper of the Flame” Flory Jagoda (z”l).  In the seventh episode of  Songs of Our People, Songs of Our Neighbors, Gaeta will chat with NMAJH Public Programs Manager and musician, Dan Samuels about how she came to Sephardic music, and the myriad ways she has and continues to preserve the stories and music of the NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award-winning ladino music legend, Flory Jagoda.

About Susan Gaeta

Susan Gaeta is a Master Artist at Virginia Humanities and an important member of a new generation of musicians who are exploring the varied traditions of Sephardic music. Susan lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina for eight years where she performed classic jazz and traditional Argentine folk songs. Under the auspices of the 2002-2003 Folklife Apprenticeship Program to the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Susan completed studies with National Heritage Fellow, Flory Jagoda, composer, singer, and musician known as the “Keeper of the Flame” of Sephardic music. Susan continued to perform with Flory for several years as a duo and with the Flory Jagoda Trio. She has appeared at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at the Greater Washington Folk Festival, the United States Holocaust Museum, before numerous Jewish and inter-faith communities and in historic concerts in Istanbul and Sarajevo. She performs nationally as a soloist, as a member of Trio Sefardi and with Minnush, a folk-jazz Sephardic band formed in 2018 with her apprentice, Gina Sobel.

About the Songs of Our People Songs of Our Neighbors series:

Launched online in June 2020, this series explores music from varied Jewish traditions and diverse cultures, from the historic and traditional, to the contemporary and reimagined. Through conversations, live and prerecorded performances, and audience Q&A, this series uses music to better understand the complex, culturally diverse communities which make up the Jewish People, and our nation.

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