The Zedashe Ensemble, making their second US tour from Eastern Georgia, will perform on November 9 at the Brewhouse on Pittsburgh s Southside. Founded in the mid 1990s to sing repertoire largely lost during the Communist era, the music features a dark, sonorous vocal quality and startling, unexpected harmonies.

Their repertoire includes ancient three-part harmony chants from the Orthodox Christian liturgy, as well as folk song genres, field-songs, love songs, historical ballads, war dance songs, and ritual circle dances. Some songs are accompanied by traditional instruments such as chunir, panduri, chonguri, doli, chiboni and accordion. The singers and musicians are joined by two virtuosic solo dancers.

The group’s name is taken from the special earthenware jugs zedashes that were buried under the family home for the purpose of making wine. This wine was especially for the veneration of ancestors and the tapping of the zedashe every year carried great ritual significance. Don t miss this opportunity to experience this rare and haunting music.