Trio Mandili — ცოცხლად ორლანდოში, 2027 წლის 8 მაისი

სამი ხმა, ერთი პანდური და ხმა, რომელმაც მსოფლიო მოიარა. ტრიო მანდილი უბრალო ქართული ხალხური სიმღერა მსოფლიო ფენომენად აქცია და შაბათს, 2027 წლის 8 მაისს, პირდაპირ ეთერში შემოიტანენ ორლანდოში Georgian Food & კულტურული ფესტივალი.

If you have ever scrolled past a video of three young women walking down a country road, singing in close harmony as if the camera were not there, you have already met them. That clip introduced millions of people to Georgian music — many of whom had never heard of Georgia at all. Now that same music is coming to Central Florida, a few steps away from a table of khachapuri and a glass of Georgian wine.

From a village road to the world stage

It began in 2014. Three friends filmed themselves singing the folk song "Apareka" as they strolled along a road in Georgia — no studio, no stage, no production budget. One of them carried a panduri, the others carried the harmony, and the phone camera bobbed along with their steps. The video was posted online almost as an afterthought.

Within weeks it had gathered millions of views. Comments arrived in dozens of languages from people who could not understand a single word and did not need to. What they heard was something older than pop music and completely unguarded: three voices braided together, walking in step, holding a melody that Georgian families have sung for generations.

More than a decade later, Trio Mandili has grown from an accidental viral moment into one of the most recognizable names in Georgian folk music, with albums, sold-out European tours and a global audience that keeps growing. What has not changed is the format that made them famous: no wall of sound, no backing tracks — just voices, a panduri, and songs that were written to be sung outdoors.

Who are Trio Mandili?

Trio Mandili is an all-female group from Georgia, the small country in the South Caucasus wedged between the Black Sea and the mountains, where singing in parts is not a specialist skill but something people learn at the family table. The line-up has changed over the years — the trio today is Tatuli Mgeladze, Tako Tsiklauri and Mariam Kurasbediani, and the founding line-up that recorded the first videos also included Shorena Tsiskarauli and Ana Chincharauli.

What holds the group together is not a single star voice but the balance between three of them. In Georgian singing, no one is simply "the backing vocals": the top voice carries the melody, the second answers and ornaments it, and the bass line underneath keeps the whole thing standing. Take any one of the three away and the song collapses. That is why the trio has always performed as a trio, and why their music sounds so different from the solo-plus-accompaniment format most Western listeners are used to.

What the name means

Mandili (მანდილი) is the Georgian word for a woman's headscarf. It is not merely a piece of cloth. In Georgian tradition, a woman who threw her mandili on the ground between fighting men could stop the fight on the spot — the scarf carried an authority that weapons were expected to respect. To this day the word carries that double meaning of gentleness and power.

For a group of young women who took a village song and carried it to concert halls from Warsaw to Tel Aviv, it is a fitting name. Their music never raises its voice, and it reaches farther than anything shouted.

Georgian polyphony: a thousand years of three voices

Georgian polyphony is one of the oldest continuously living traditions of multi-part singing in the world, and it is the heart of what Trio Mandili does. Instead of a melody with chords underneath it, a Georgian song is made of two or three independent lines that move at the same time, leaning into each other and pulling apart in intervals that can sound startling to an ear raised on Western harmony — and then resolving into a unison so solid it feels like a single instrument.

UNESCO recognizes Georgian polyphonic singing as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Its reputation reaches even further than that: the Georgian song "Chakrulo" was one of the pieces of music placed on the Voyager Golden Record and launched into interstellar space in 1977, which makes Georgian three-part singing one of the few human sounds currently leaving the solar system.

Each region of Georgia sings differently. Kakheti, the eastern wine country, is known for long, slow table songs over a held drone. Guria in the west produces dizzying fast songs crowned by krimanchuli, a yodel-like top voice. The mountain villages of Svaneti keep the most archaic layer of all, songs that sound like stone. Trio Mandili draws on this whole map, and part of the pleasure of hearing them live is noticing how much the mood changes from one song to the next.

The panduri

The instrument in their hands is a panduri — a traditional fretted lute from eastern Georgia with three strings and a small, light body. It is the instrument of the household rather than the concert hall: used to accompany ballads, dance tunes, lullabies and comic songs, and simple enough that it travels well, which is exactly why it ended up in a video filmed on a country road.

Its cousin from western Georgia, the chonguri, has four strings and a rounder sound. Both are plucked and strummed rather than picked out note by note, so the accompaniment works as a rhythmic frame around the voices instead of competing with them. Listen for it at the festival: the panduri is what keeps the song walking forward.

Songs, albums and a repertoire in many languages

Trio Mandili has released several albums since the first videos appeared, among them With Love (2015), Enguro (2017) and Sakartvelo (2022) — the last one titled with the Georgian name for Georgia itself. Alongside "Apareka", their recordings include favourites such as "Kakhuri", "Kikile", "Guruli" and "Haralali-Haralalo": village songs, love songs, and pieces that in Georgia belong to a feast rather than a stage.

They have also sung far outside their own language. Over the years the trio has recorded and performed in Hindi, Polish, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian and Russian, usually taking a song that audiences in those countries know by heart and rebuilding it in Georgian three-part harmony. The effect is disarming — a familiar melody suddenly wearing unfamiliar clothes — and it is a large part of why their audience is spread across so many countries.

That openness is very Georgian. Hospitality in Georgia is not politeness, it is a principle: the guest is a gift from God, and the table is where that is proved. A group that answers an audience in the audience's own language is doing, on stage, what a Georgian host does at home.

Watch Trio Mandili

Start with the song that started everything. If you have three minutes, this is the clearest possible introduction to what you will hear live in Orlando.

“Apareka” — the 2014 video that introduced Trio Mandili to the world.

ვიდეო არ იტვირთება? უყურეთ "Apareka" YouTube-ზე.

Video from Trio Mandili

A few more clips from the trio, shared ahead of the Orlando show.

More performances, including songs from Sakartvelo, are on the group's official YouTube channel.

Trio Mandili კონცერტზე — ორლანდო, 2027 წლის 8 მაისი

არ გამოტოვოთ თქვენი შანსი, ნახოთ Trio Mandili პირდაპირ ეთერში ორლანდოში. ეს განსაკუთრებული პერფორმანსი ქართული კვების ერთ-ერთი ყველაზე მოსალოდნელი მომენტია & კულტურული ფესტივალი - იშვიათი შესაძლებლობა მოვისმინოთ ავთენტური ქართული მრავალხმიანობა ცენტრალურ ფლორიდაში. შესვლის ბილეთები სწრაფად იგზავნება, ამიტომ დაჯავშნეთ ადრე, რათა უზრუნველყოთ თქვენი ადგილი.

• ვინ: Trio Mandili — ქართული ხალხური და მრავალხმიანი ტრიო
• პროდიუსერი: Ilya Sokolov და Roots and Chords Music (YouTube · Instagram · Facebook)
• როდის: შაბათი, 2027 წლის 8 მაისი · 10:00 – 20:00
• სად: 381 Orange Lane, Casselberry, FL 32707 (დიდი ორლანდო)
• შესვლის ბილეთები: ფესტივალის შესვლის ბილეთების ონლაინ შეძენა

What to expect on the day

The concert is part of the festival, not a separate event: one entry ticket covers the whole day. That means you can hear Trio Mandili and then walk twenty steps to a plate of khinkali. The festival grounds open at 10 AM and the day runs until 8 PM, with dance, crafts, a children's corner and a full Georgian kitchen running the whole time.

A few practical suggestions. Come earlier than you think you need to — the area in front of the stage fills up well before the set begins, and parking is easier in the morning. Bring a hat and water: May in Central Florida is warm, and most of the festival is outdoors. If you are bringing children, the music is a good place to start — Georgian songs have a strong pulse, and small listeners tend to figure out the rhythm long before the adults do.

And if you would like to understand what you are hearing, listen for the bottom line rather than the top. In Georgian singing the bass is the foundation everything else is built on. Once you hear it holding the song up, the two voices above it stop sounding like decoration and start sounding like a conversation.

Why this concert matters

Georgian folk music is rarely heard live in this part of the United States. Most people meet it through a screen, which flattens it: polyphony is a physical experience, built on voices in the same room reinforcing one another, and recordings only hint at what that does to a crowd. Bringing Trio Mandili to Casselberry means a few thousand people in Central Florida will hear this tradition the way it is meant to be heard — outdoors, close up, with food on the table nearby.

The festival is organized by Saint Nina Orthodox Mission of Orlando, and everything it raises goes back into the community that puts it on. Buying an entry ticket is how the stage, the sound system and the artists' travel get paid for — and it is the simplest way to make sure a day like this happens again next year.

Frequently asked questions

პროდიუსერის შესახებ

Roots and Chords Music არის სრული სერვისის მქონე არტისტების მენეჯმენტის სააგენტო, რომელიც ორიენტირებულია მსოფლიო მუსიკასა და კულტურათაშორის გაცვლაზე. მონაცემებზე დაფუძნებული ტურნეებისა და თანამედროვე მარკეტინგის ტრადიციებთან და ინოვაციებთან შერწყმით, ისინი ხელმძღვანელობენ საერთაშორისო დონეზე აღიარებულ შემსრულებლებს, ავითარებენ ახალ ნიჭიერ ხმებს და ხელს უწყობენ მსოფლიო მუსიკის გავრცელებას ახალ აუდიტორიაში მთელ მსოფლიოში.

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