Concerts

Iva Bittová

Presented by Nonsequitur and Earshot Jazz Festival. Reviewed in the Seattle P-I.

Czech violinist/vocalist Iva Bittová performs a kind of “personal folk music” that blooms in a fertile sonic delta where Eastern European folk, contemporary classical, improvisation, and rock traditions meet. Her vocal elasticity matches her instrumental and compositional skill, note for breathtaking note. In her singularly original and powerful performances, Bittova sings, plays, and acts simultaneously to create compositions and improvisations that are highly abstract yet deeply rooted in the classical and gypsy music of the tiny Moravian villages where she spent her formative years. Uninhibited and unaffected, Bittová sings about issues that affect women in poetry that is sensual, fervent and evocative.