Northern Virginia-based ensemble Trio Sefardi celebrated its 15th anniversary on March 11 with a Ladino concert at the Embassy of Spain’s Spanish cultural center. The performance was hosted by the embassy and Sephardic Heritage International (SHIN DC) to honor the life and legacy of Trio Sefardi’s mentor, a “legendary Sephardic singer.”
The standing-room-only concert featured music in Ladino, the language of the Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492. Also known as Judeo-Spanish, the language thrived for five centuries as the “mother tongue of many Sephardic Jews,” according to a press release by SHIN DC.
Now considered endangered, Ladino originally found its way to Greater Washington when Bosnian Holocaust survivor Flory Jagoda and American Jewish soldier Harry Jagoda got married and settled together in northern Virginia in 1946, along with Flory Jagoda’s family.
She worked to preserve the Ladino language and music in her new home, becoming a singer, songwriter, guitarist and accordionist. The concert featured songs Jagoda had composed, according to Afraim Katzir, the founding director of SHIN DC.
But Jagoda notably didn’t write songs or practice music while her mother had been alive: “She said it was just too painful for her family because of all that was lost,” Katzir told Washington Jewish Week.
“Once [Jagoda’s] mother passed away, that’s when she started doing Ladino music,” Katzir said. “She brought that culture here with her.”
Jagoda was named a National Heritage fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2002 and was a loyal supporter of SHIN DC, Katzir said.
Jagoda died in 2021 at the age of 97 at a memory care facility in Alexandria, Virginia, but her memory lives on through the Ladino language and music that she handed down to Greater Washingtonian artists including Trio Sefardi, Katzir said.
“She’s one of those people that when you were in the room with her, she made you feel special,” Katzir said of Jagoda. “One of her personality traits is that she had that kind of connection with people.”
The trio consists of Jagoda’s mentees, Susan Gaeta, Howard Bass and Tina Chancey. Since its inception in 2010, Trio Sefardi has performed at concert venues, festivals, synagogues and Jewish community centers across the East Coast, according to the Trio Sefardi website.
“We didn’t just celebrate [Trio Sefardi’s] 15 anniversary, but we also celebrated the life of Flory Jagoda and all that she gave to us,” Katzir said of the March 11 concert.
Trio Sefardi performed songs about the memory of being in Spain, including Jagoda’s arrangement of “A Ti, Espanya,” or “to you, Spain,” originally a poem written by Abraham Cappon about longing for Spain and “never deserting the beautiful Spanish language,” despite the fact that Sephardic Jews had been expelled from the country, Katzir said.
“For many people, language is a very important part of identity, so an important part of preserving Sephardic heritage and culture is preserving the Ladino language,” Katzir said. “For many years, it’s [been] an important part of Sephardic expression.”
The trio also played “art songs” — in this case, Ladino songs set to music in the Western European classic tradition — and melodies composed for the upcoming Jewish holidays of Purim and Passover.
“The music was beautiful,” Katzir said, adding that the performance received a standing ovation from the audience, including Ambassador Ángeles Moreno, the ambassador of Spain to the United States.
Lori Şen, a Sephardic Turkish mezzo-soprano and Fulbright alumna, performed as Trio Sefardi’s featured artist. Katzir said Turkey is one of the predominant countries in which Ladino was spoken.
“From the expulsion of Spain’s Jews in March 1492, to the survival of Flory Jagoda’s family during [World War II], and the Ladino language taking root in Flory’s new home in Washington, we now come full circle with Trio Sefardi’s anniversary celebration at the Embassy of Spain’s Spanish cultural center,” Katzir said in the press release.
Trio Sefardi will continue its 15th anniversary tour with a May concert for the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, and in December, as a featured group in Washington Revels’ “Andalusian Treasures.”
