Gabriel Kahane COMPOSER / PERFORMER

gabriel kahane COMPOSER / PERFORMER Photo by: Jen Snow biography Singer, pianist, and composer Gabriel Kahane is at the forefront by Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red; a hybrid cello sonata/ of a generation of artists who are reinventing the landscape of song cycle for cellist Alisa Weilerstein and himself for the 2010- music in the 21st century. Armed with a “sonorous, mesmerizing 11 season; as well as an evening-length work for piano, voice, baritone” (The New Yorker) and a profound gift for composition, andorchestra, exploring his family’s genealogy and journey Kahane has found niches in the indie, classical and theater from Germany to the United States. worlds while effortlessly blurring the lines between them. Recently named The Public Theater’s inaugural Musical Theater A testament to his catholic musical pursuits, Kahane’s self- Fellow, Kahane is currently writing a new musical, February titled debut album was released in September 2008. With House, as the centerpiece of the fellowship. In addition, twenty musicians involved, the recording offers snippets of Kahane was recently commissioned by the Signature Theatre string quartets juxtaposed with strummy folk songs, and brass in Arlington, Virginia, to write an evening-length work for its chorales right beside jangly piano pop; yet it’s very much of a American Musical Voices Project. piece, an album meant to be heard as a whole. His popular song cycle Craigslistlieder – art-song settings of eight anonymous Among his varied credits as a performer, Kahane has appeared posts Kahane found on the personals/classifieds website in recital with Grammy Award-winning bass-baritone Thomas craigslist.org – has won over fans and critics with its unlikely Quasthoff throughout Europe, toured the Schumann Piano affiliation of raucous pop culture with deft high-art craft. Quintet with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and accompanied violinist Hilary Hahn in the slow movement of the Sibelius Much in demand as a composer, Kahane recently completed Violin Concerto in a dirty bar on the Lower East Side of a large-scale solo work for pianist Natasha Paremski, as well Manhattan. Additionally, he has performed and/or recorded as a short piece for his father called Django: Tiny Variations on with Sufjan Stevens, Rufus Wainwright, Bill Frisell, Elvis a Big Dog. Django had its New York City premiere at Lincoln Costello, Chris Thile and Loudon Wainwright III, among Center’s Alice Tully Hall and was hailed by the New York Times others. as “most striking, if only for the virtuosity and varied stylistic sensibility it demanded.” Upcoming writing projects include Kahane makes his home in Brooklyn, New York, in close The Red Book, a string quartet for the Kronos Quartet inspired company with a piano and many books. quotes HIS MUSIC ABSORBS EVERYTHING FROM nineTEEN- GABRIEL KAHANE IS AN NPR PROGRAMMER’S wet “ twenties neoclassicism to blue-grass and modern indie pop.with “ dream...From a sonic standpoint, Kahane’s restlessness and potent melodies bridging the disparate styles...in a setting of ingenuity match the precociousness of his words, the album [Robert Lowell’s] “The Drinker” Kahane hit a vein of desolate often abandoning pop’s expected patterns of build and release beauty, dwelling obsesively on the phrase “foundering down.’ with a less-predictable approach that comes closer to musical His greatest asset is his sonorous, mesmerizing baritone; he theatre.” brings to mind Sinatra in his wee-small-hours mood.” - Pitchfork - The New Yorker WHERE FEW LISTENERS THESE DAYS CAN ACTUALLY “ hear the song of themselves in Schubert lieder, Kahane is telling THERE IS NOBODY ELSE IN THE POP-MUSIC sphere us the simple and tragic stories of a life we can comprehend “ making music even remotely as sophisticated as what you’ll using just as much poetry.” hear on Gabriel Kahane. This is music for the ears, the intellect and the soul, and an auspicious debut LP from one of the most - NewMusicBox prodigious talents we’ve got.” - Prefix Magazine EXCEPT FOR A STRONGLY ETCHED RACHMANINOFF “group, which closed the recital, [Jeffrey] Kahane devoted the second half of his program to an appealing sampling of new works. The most THE INSTRUMENTAL PARTS, AT TIMES, MIGHT BE striking, if only for the virtuosity and varied stylistic sensibility it “ purely classical compositions all by themselves, thoughtful, demanded, was “Django: Tiny Variations on a Big Dog” (2009), and above all wrought -- carefully balanced, with contrasting a work by his son, Gabriel Kahane. (Django is Jeffrey Kahane’s melodies coexisting with each other, along with complex dog.) Brief as it is, the piece takes an imaginative, finger- rhythms, and little strains of music that register like sharp, sure twisting route from 12-tone to ragtime, and Mr. Kahane played thoughts, or like images in a carefully crafted short story.” it dazzlingly.” - The Wall Street Journal - The New York Times Photo by: Matt Licari A Singer-Songwriter Ignores Musical That night Mr. Kahane had emphasized the sophisticated original songs from his newly released debut album, “Gabriel Boundaries Kahane,” issued by the Brooklyn label Family Records. But his By Steve Smith set also included a handful of Charles Ives songs, in which he April 24, 2009 was accompanied by Jeremy Denk, an estimable young classical pianist. Mr. Denk also played a brash miniature by Hindemith. The audience—which included Mr. Denk’s regular recital ursing a cup of coffee at a Brooklyn Heights cafe one partner, the violinist Joshua Bell—ate it all up. Nrecent afternoon Gabriel Kahane looked every bit the part of a hip young singer-songwriter: tousled hair, sleepy eyes, a At 27, Mr. Kahane is part of a musically omnivorous generation. kitschy blue sweater embroidered with the names of golf resorts. Young classical composers like Nico Muhly and Caleb Burhans That evening he would begin a short American concert tour are not crossing over to pop idioms so much as they are ignoring with a show at Rockwood Music Hall, a Lower East Side club stylistic boundaries outright. Meeting them midway are where he has often performed. When he last played there, several adventurous musicians like Sufjan Stevens, an ambitious singer- weeks before, his gentle, smoky baritone and heartfelt delivery songwriter, and Chris Thile, originally a bluegrass mandolin mesmerized an audience that filled the room to busting. wunderkind. Both appear on Mr. Kahane’s CD. CONT’D } Yet even by those standards, Mr. Kahane’s versatility sets him From his son, Mr. Kahane requested an étude inspired by apart. The day before the start of his concert tour, he wrotethe their family dog, named after the great jazz guitarist Django score and lyrics for “Multiphobia,” presented as part of “The 24 Reinhardt. Instead the piece evolved into a set of miniature Hour Musicals” at the Gramercy Theater. Among his current variations, one of which, “Mechanized Django,” Jeffrey New York Times New York projects is an evening-length work commissioned by Musical Kahane described as “35 of the most difficult bars of music { Theater Initiative for the Public Theater, based on “February I’ve ever learned.” House,” Sherill Tippins’s book about the history of a Brooklyn brownstone where W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Benjamin “I called him and said, ‘Gabe, this is unbelievably difficult,’ ” Britten and Gypsy Rose Lee all lived together. Mr. Kahane added. “And he said, ‘You’re just used to having everything be easy.’ I called him again after another 15 hours Concert works are forming a larger part of Mr. Kahane’s of working on it, and I said, ‘Are you sure you’re not mad at agenda. In January he collaborated with yMusic, a New York me about something?’ I did finally get it, and now it’s a joy to chamber-music sextet, for “For the Union Dead,” a song cycle play.” Photo by: Matt Licari based on poems by Robert Lowell. Another recent commission, “Django: Tiny Variations on a Big Dog,” is set to receive its Though father never formally taught son, Gabriel Kahane’s New York premiere Sunday at Alice Tully Hall during a recital creative identity was surely shaped by a childhood spent in by Mr. Kahane’s father, the renowned pianist and conductor a musical household. His mother, a psychologist, sang in Jeffrey Kahane. choruses. He received Suzuki-method violin training, sang in operas and acted in school plays. After rejecting piano lessons Initially Gabriel Kahane was reluctant to accept the invitation. at 11, he discovered his parents’ battered old acoustic guitars, “Ever since I’ve been out doing my own thing, we’ve had real remnants of their days in rock and folk bands during the reservations about any accusations of nepotism,” he said. “And 1960s, and started writing songs. Having failed out of high for me, it was a confidence issue, not wanting to put myself out school, Gabriel Kahane pursued a jazz-piano infatuation with there unless the piece was going to stand up to whatever else a year of study at the New England Conservatory. was on the program.” “I was frustrated by the myopic conservatory thing, the lack By telephone from Colorado, Jeffrey Kahane said: “I explained of context for why it is we make art,” he said. Transferring to him that I wanted to devote a substantial part of my recital to Brown University, he resumed his acting. During his program to new American music.” Along with music by sophomore year a friend coaxed him to write a musical; the Mendelssohn, Schubert and Rachmaninoff, the concert will fledgling effort was honored by the Kennedy Center. include works composed for Jeffrey Kahane by Mr. Muhly and Kenneth Frazelle. CONT’D } On graduating in 2003, Gabriel Kahane moved to New York audiences seemed to find “Craigslistlieder” easier to appreci- with no firm plans beyond the goal of creating a body of work ate than some of Mr.

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