"Voyages" with David Krakauer, clarinet and Kathleen Tagg, piano

About the Program

Krakauer & Tagg share a constant quest to redefine the sounds and roles of their instruments, bringing together all aspects of their music making– influences range from interlocking African drumming patterns to jazz to Romantic symphonic music to minimalism to klezmer.

Their acrobatic and highly virtuosic arrangements of tunes by a host of performer-composers from around the globe are placed alongside original compositions and complete reimaginings of traditional tunes and standards close to their hearts.

Kinan Azmeh                           November 22
arr. Tagg

Claude Debussy                      Première Rhapsodie

John Zorn                                 Parzial
arr. Krakauer and Tagg

Traditional                              Der Gasn Nign
arr. Krakauer and Tagg

Kathleen Tagg                       Berimbau

John Waldo Green                Body and Soul
Edward Heyman
Robert B. Sour
Frank Eyton
arr. Krakauer and Tagg

Abraham Ellstein                 Chassidic Dance

Andre Petersen                    Time Watchers
arr. Tagg

David Krakauer                    Love Song for Lemberg/Lvov

David Krakauer                    Synagogue Wail

Traditional                            Der Heyser Bulgar
arr. Krakauer and Tagg

About the Artists

Grammy-nominated classical, world music artist David Krakauer and South African
pianist/composer/producer Kathleen Tagg have come together to create a body of work that defies
stylistic confines and embodies a celebration of identity, communication and cross-cultural connection. Widely considered one of the greatest clarinetists on the planet, Krakauer has been praised internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music. Tagg is an award-winning pianist, composer and producer who has performed on four continents, produced a catalog of classical, and multi-genre albums, had her work performed around the world, and is becoming known for her distinctive sound that mixes together acoustic and electronic sounds, loops, samples and extended techniques.

Krakauer & Tagg began working together in 2012, and each year have pushed further against the boundaries of standard concert programming by creating programs that completely redefine the sounds and roles of their instruments. Krakauer’s use of extended techniques, improvisation, and circular breathing on the clarinet, along with Tagg’s prowess inside the piano to remake it as a harp, a zither, a drum, and a cello creates a collective sound that completely transforms these two acoustic instruments. Their work together includes large-scale dialogue works; creating works for soloists and orchestra or symphonic wind band; multimedia immersive works with spatialized audio and live video art; film scores, works for genre-crossing band, alongside their acoustic and electric performance programs. 

In 2015 they began experimenting with incorporating loops and samples, ultimately creating their unique electro-acoustic show Breath & Hammer with live video feed, which extended ideas from their acoustic programs. In 2019 they created a fully immersive audio-visual surround-sound concert/art installation experience, The Ties That Bind Us, with LA-based video designer Jesse Gilbert for the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.

Recent co-composed works include an evening-length collaborative work, Keepers of The Flame, with musicians from Syria, Ukraine, USA and Poland, commissioned by the Center for International Dialogue at the Borderlands Foundation in Poland. Other large-scale co-compositions include a Klezmer Fantasy for concert wind band written for the Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy as well as a clarinet concerto, The Fretless Clarinet (World premiere: 2021 by Santa Rosa Symphony and conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong. European premiere: 2022 by the Orchestre de la Nouvelle-Aquitaine at Paris Philharmonie, with conductor François Heisser). The score for Minyan by filmmaker Eric Steel, which Krakauer & Tagg not only co-wrote but also performed and produced, premiered at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival and is their first feature film project. www.krakauertaggmusic.com