ABOUT US

Zambra: An Andalusian dance; a Moorish festival;
a town in Italy, a Spanish celebration;
an ancient Hebrew song...a celebration of women's voices!

Based out of Santa Cruz, CA, Zambra sings glorious global music with a radiant harmonic blend. Whether singing Sephardic laments, Scots Gaelic waulking tunes, Italian wedding songs, Swedish lullabies, or southern Appalachian hymns, our sound is consistently beautiful and engaging, with most material arranged specifically for our voices by members Kathleen Loveless and Kathryn Veditz. Zambra typically performs a capella, but sometimes uses traditional accompaniment such as frame and hand drums, fiddle, guitar, harp, or dulcimer.

Zambra has a wide range of performance experience, having opened for feminist speakers Betty Friedan and Angela Davis, serenaded elementary school children, and provided intimate music for healing and hospice. Some past public performances have included the Cabrillo Music Festival's Church Street Fair, "Choreocopia" dinner shows with India Joze master chef Jozseph Schulz and MoveSpeakSpin, Calvary Episcopal Church's annual Santa Cruz Community Caroling night, First Night Santa Cruz, First Night Monterey, concert series of The Monterey Museum of Art and Santa Cruz Public Libraries, Santa Cruz Accapellafest, Center for Spiritual Enlightenment, Voices of the People, Songfest for Prostate Cancer Awareness, and numerous other events. Zambra provided live music for productions of Mosaic: Dances of Peace, Justice, Culture and Conflict in the Middle East by the MoveSpeakSpin dance company under the direction of award-winning choreographer Karl Schaffer, and collaborated with MoveSpeakSpin and NPR "math guy" Keith Devlin on original choral interpretations of math equations. Zambra has also had the privilege of studying and performing Moroccan village song with master Tamazight musician Fattah Abbou, and of working closely with Northern Irish recording artist Mary McLaughlin and her Irish Gaelic choir Cór Ainglí.

Besides being a performing ensemble, Zambra is also a close group of long-time friends bound together by their love of singing. The group, founded by Therese Hall Johannesson in 1994, began as a larger bilingual women's choir. It has since evolved into a smaller group of singers sharing the tasks of musical and logistical leadership, with an expansive repertoire encompassing many languages and cultures.

The women of Zambra look forward to sharing our music with you!