Alan Gasser, Stuart Gelzer, and Carl Linich

performing traditional vocal music from the Republic of Georgia

with Anzor Erkomaishvili in Tbilisi at the 2002
International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony

recording session at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, NY

The Fox and the Lion (2006, Traditional Crossroads) Here's a brief review of The Fox and the Lion by ethnomusicologist Ted Levin in BBC Music Magazine (September 2007): Trio Kavkasia exuberantly quashes the myth that world music traditions are most authentically represented by indigenous musicians. This threesome hails from North America, but here they render Georgian vocal polyphony's often weird-sounding harmonies and scale tunings with precision and panache. Recorded in a Benedictine monastery in New York, the music sounds lush and resonant, revealing the Trio's nimble counterpoint, angular voice-leading, and strident chord tunings in all their dissonant glory. (★★★★) Read more REVIEWS of The Fox and the Lion.

O Morning Breeze (2001, Naxos World) Click on the album cover image to see expanded liner notes for this album, full lyrics translations, and many photos.

Songs of the Caucasus (1995, Well-Tempered World) Our first album also exists as a reissue entitled "Songs of Earthly Delight from the Caucasus," with different cover artwork.

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Civilization VI: Rise and Fall
computer game soundtrack
July 2017

In summer 2017 Trio Kavkasia recorded the soundtrack for the "Georgia" nation expansion pack of the computer game Civilization VI: Rise and Fall. The makers of Civilization VI periodically release new countries as add-on plug-ins to the game; the Georgia expansion was part of the round released in early 2018.

Players who choose to play as "Georgia" get the real-life Queen Tamar the Great (reigned 1184-1213) as their game avatar and national leader, and their game play is accompanied by a selection of vocal and instrumental Georgian music provided by Trio Kavkasia.

The playlist during the game isn't linear; the tracks we recorded fade in and out or loop following a complex algorithm: as you encounter other nations their music starts to infiltrate yours and vice versa. If they dominate you, you hear more of their national music -- not a good sign for your prospects. And as you advance in civilization from ancient to medieval to industrial to atomic, the musical mix changes gradually from the trio's plainest and most traditional vocal tuning and folk instruments to a smoother trio sound plus viola da gamba, and eventually to the trio plus massive choir and orchestra. So you'd probably have to play the game as "Georgia" many times (and survive and thrive into modernity) to hear all the tracks in some fashion.

The tracks for the Ancient Era feature Trio Kavkasia alone, presenting songs in traditional form, just as we sound in concert or on our albums. The soundtracks for the later eras (Medieval, Industrial, Atomic) were arranged by Geoff Knorr, an award-winning composer for video games and film, using the hymn Shen Khar Venakhi and the folk ballad Tsaiqvanes Tamar Kali -- the latter chosen in honor of the game avatar Queen Tamar. Geoff recorded our trio parts first, alone; then he added all the other instruments and massed voices to our tracks many months later in Prague.

Given what computer game sales are like (especially a global hit like Civilization VI), it's possible that tens thousands of computer game fans will inadvertently hear Georgian music while playing the game; we hope at least some of them will become curious and want to know more about the country and its extraordinary music.

A few images from Trio Kavkasia's one-day recording session with Geoff Knorr in a small studio in Long Island City, NY:

Eliso
live movie soundtrack
September 2014 - March 2015

Four times in the fall and winter of 2014-15 on opposite coasts Trio Kavkasia provided a full-length live soundtrack for Eliso, a 1928 Georgian silent film directed by Nikoloz Shengelaia. The trio performed a score created especially for the film by Carl, using a variety of traditional Georgian songs.

In September 2014 the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened its Georgian cinema retrospective with Eliso. To perform the live soundtrack Trio Kavkasia was joined by members of the New York Supruli Choir. The screening/performance was attended by a large delegation from the Georgian government, including Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili, Ambassador to the U.S. Archil Gegeshidze, Minister of Culture and Monument Protection Guram Odisharia, and other members of the Georgian cabinet.

Dress rehearsal: members of Supruli with "Eliso" projected

The trio with an Egon Schiele in MoMA's sculpture garden

The whole group with MoMA's Andy Warhol cows

In October 2014 the University of California's Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) screened Eliso twice at the PFA Theater as part of its Georgian Cinema series. This time to perform the live soundtrack Trio Kavkasia was joined by friends from the Bay Area and elsewhere.

The whole group outside the PFA Theater

With the banner for BAM/PFA's Discovering Georgian Cinema series

Before the screening, PFA Senior Film Curator Susan Oxtoby introduces the group

In February 2015 Trio Kavkasia once again provided the live soundtrack when the Film Department of the Smithsonian Museum's Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, screened Eliso as the opening event in its Discovering Georgian Cinema series. The trio was joined again by members of the New York Supruli Choir. Georgian Ambassador to the U.S. Archil Gegeshidze attended and introduced the event.

Alan in the Freer Gallery's Peacock Room between dress rehearsal and performance

The reception at the Freer Gallery sponsored by the Georgian Embassy

Carl, Luke Linich, and Ambassador Gegeshidze at the reception

In March 2015 Trio Kavkasia provided the live soundtrack once more when Bard College in Annandale-On-Hudson, NY, screened Eliso. The performance was sponsored by Bard College's Center for Moving Image Arts. The trio was again assisted by members of the New York Supruli Choir and friends.

Twentieth Anniversary East Coast tour
to commemorate the trio's founding in Toronto in January 1994
January 2014

1) 20-minute set at the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival, Brooklyn

Golden Festival: backstage

Golden Festival: the Grand Ballroom

Golden Festival: midnight set in the Atrium

2) concert at Grace & St. Paul's Church, Manhattan (with the New York Supruli Ensemble)

Manhattan concert

3) workshop and concert at Yale University, New Haven

Yale: workshop with the Yale Slavic Chorus

Yale: concert in Dwight Chapel

4) concert at the Church of the Holy City, Washington, DC.

Washington: opening remarks by the Honorable Archil Gegeshidze, Ambassador of Georgia

Washington: under the eye of the Voice of America's Georgian Service and the videographer for our concert DVD

Washington: Carl and Ambassador Gegeshidze being interviewed by the VOA

5) workshop and concert at Princeton University, Princeton (with the Princeton Georgian Choir)

Princeton: workshop in the Music Department — Alan explains the mysteries of Georgian tuning

Princeton: concert at Mathey College

Princeton: in the Mathey College common room

6) workshop, children's program, and concert at Crossroads Music, Philadelphia (with Svitanya)

Philadelphia: workshop at Crossroads Music

November 2011: concert at Texas State University in San Marcos with the Texas State Men's Choir and multimedia artists Irina Patkanian and Chris Langer.

February 2011: four concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area with the women's vocal ensemble Kitka in their series Caucasian Connections.

October 2008: two concerts in Toronto with the Toronto Consort as part of the Consort's Marco Polo Project.

September 2008: workshop and concert at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.

with Kitka in Santa Cruz (2011)

on stage at Swarthmore College (2008)

at Liberty Town Arts Workshop, Fredericksburg (2006)

guest-teaching Ted Levin's world music class at
Dartmouth College (2004)

Kavkasia's six-day intensive workshop on Georgian music
at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto (2004)

with ethnomusicologists Izaly Zemtsovsky and Joseph
Jordania in Tbilisi (2002)

even in different clothes it's still Georgian music (2009)

being interviewed on Georgian television
after our 1995 Tbilisi concert

Click here to see several complete reviews of our third album, The Fox and the Lion.