Dear Friends,

I am writing to you in the hope that, despite these challenging fiscal times, you might still be able to support Jezic as we launch two special projects in 2009.

Our spring concert on April 19th, 2009 will feature the Ugandan artist Kinobe and his ensemble, Soul Beat Africa. All compositions will be traditional Ugandan music arranged by Kinobe or original compositions based on the traditional styles of African music. Additionally, all choir members will receive a kalimba, a wooden Ugandan thumb piano, hand-crafted by Kinobe.  The choir will have months of practice on the instrument before the spring concert!  Kinobe and his ensemble are touring the US with support from Alliance Francaise.  We recognize how very fortunate we are to have this opportunity to work with such a gifted and heralded artist, a musician truly committed to preserving the rich cultural traditions of his homeland. As a child, Kinobe learned to play piano and read music ( he can now score choral repertoire) from a Scottish piano teacher while attending an international school in Uganda.  Kinobe and SBA will be with us for our first rehearsal for this project on February 18th and also for the entire weekend of April 17th through April 19th. We hope you can save the date, and join us for what promises to be a beautiful afternoon. 
                     For more information about Kinobe please visit www.kinobemusic.com.

For our annual women composer contest, Jezic will be collaborating this season with the Roanoke Island Festival Park on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and reaching out to a wider audience. For this project, we are also partnering with the Freedman’s Colony, an organization dedicated to educating the public about the thousands of former slaves who formed a colony, complete with a church and a school, on the barrier island in the midst of the Civil War.  I have been very fortunate to meet the beautiful women who are working to preserve this very important living history.  With the support of the Tourism Bureau of the Outer Banks, Jezic teams with the Roanoke Island Festival Park and the women of the Freedman’s Colony to create a program of new compositions especially for this landmark event.  This effort inaugurates an annual concert celebrating the women and history of the Freedman’s Colony. The concert will take place in North Carolina during the month of September in 2009. We are proud to focus our 2009 annual composer contest with this mission. Text is being developed by the women from the Freedman’s Colony and writers from Jezic, and the competition will be launched from the Jezic website, as usual. This project will have a projected image component, using historical photographs, and we anticipate, in time, the publication of a small anthology of verse, stories and songs from our research.  Extensive program notes will complement the September concert. I will be sure to keep you posted on our progress with regular postings on the website.

Both of these projects require a tremendous amount of research and development. It is my hope, once again, that you will be able to help us reach our goals.

If you would like to speak with me about any of these upcoming projects please call the office anytime. Thank you for your kind consideration.

I wish you love and joy this holiday season.

- Margie T. Farmer, Director
The Jezic Ensemble