KATHLEEN TAGG
Kathleen is a New York-based pianist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer from South Africa. She has performed throughout North America, Europe, Southern Africa, China and India in venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet and Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, and her recordings have been featured in film and television. Her work and compositions focus on identity, ideas of connection and sound exploration, and has been heard on five continents, from the Lucerne Festival & Festival Aix-En-Provence to the Melbourne Opera House, South African National Arts Festival to the Köln Philharmonie and the USA’s National Gallery. She is equally at home performing with an array of instrumentalists and singers in leading concert halls; in non-conventional spaces and clubs with her loops and samples; writing for her own projects and collaborations; completing commissions for artists or symphony orchestras; creating narrative immersive interdisciplinary performance works or writing for film and theater. All of her projects reflect her strong desire to connect as a human being first and foremost, and to constantly engage with the world around her. She is co-artistic director of Table Pounding Music with David Krakauer, a platform for a wide range of projects, recordings and socially focused benefit events. Kathleen is a former steering committee of the Music Workers Alliance. Read full bio.
“…think of the best efforts of Botticelli and Tiziano combined in one person…”
WORKS & SCORES
Find out more about Kathleen’s original work, compositions and scores
Kathleen & Andre Petersen perform their arr. of Abdullah Ibrahim’s African Dawn. Live at Classical NEXT, De Doelen, Rotterdam.
Human Music from Keepers of the Flame by Krakauer & Tagg. Live at Krasnogruda, Borderlands Foundation. Kathleen Tagg, David Krakauer, Sejny klezmer band & Shadi Al Maghrabi, Jehad Jazbeh, Youssef Nassif, Mykhaylo "Manu" Balogh.
Kathleen & David Krakauer perform Kathleen’s arr. of Rob Curto’s Demon Chopper at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin with video art by Jesse Gilbert as part of their The Ties that Bind Us. All sounds of untreated clarinet & piano. 360-degree video.
World premiere of In His Words: Please Dream (2022) with Words of his Holiness Archbishop Tutu. Commissioned by and performed at the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival.
A peek at Kathleen’s “Piano Orchestra” for the the project The Ties that Bind Us. Music is Kathleen’s arrangement of Kinan Azmeh’s November 22 with footage from home and the Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin.
End of Interlude IV (Dizu Plaatjies/Kathleen Tagg) and Berimbau by Kathleen Tagg. Live at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. Performed by David Krakauer, clarinet and Kathleen Tagg, piano & "piano orchestra" with video design by Jesse Gilbert. All sounds of untreated clarinet & piano.
KATHLEEN IN THE PRESS
New Sounds on WQXR Radio April 30, 2020 by John Schaefer
“This record is kind of remarkable, you almost have to take their word for it when they tell you it’s nothing but clarinet and piano….A duo record- although it never sounds like just two players…”
Hollywood Reporter: 'Minyan': Film Review | Berlin 2020 Feb 22, 2020 by David Rooney
”He also benefits from strong collaborations with composers David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg, whose score brings rich cultural specificity, and with accomplished cinematographer Ole Bratt Birkeland (Judy).”
Opera News
“This be her verse, a three-poem cycle marked by skillful vocal writing, percussive effects for the piano (and not just on the keyboard) and poetry reflecting lived contemporary female experience, proved a highly fruitful commission, and should furnish not only Schulz but other sopranos with a bracing repertory staple.”
Kate Wakeling: BBC Magazine
“Composer Kathleen Tagg and poet Lila Parmer’s vibrant This Be Her Verse provides a welcome contemporary account of female experience…fizzes with black humour and percussive energy, and Schultz’s voice by turns soars and stings…”
Joshua Barone: New York Times
”…the finest fit is Kathleen Tagg’s “This be her verse,” a commission for the program that, in addition to strummed piano strings, calls for suspended, ethereal high notes and carefree charm.”
Downbeat Magazine on a performance at LPR, New York Feb 16, 2016 by Bill Milkowski
”At the peak of their conversation, Krakauer sailed through virtuosic passages before taking off on a passionate, soul-stirring improvisation…Throughout their compelling duo set, Tagg joined prepared piano to electronics in increasingly brilliant applications."
CUE Magazine: Review July 7, 2016 by Jeffrey Brukman
“The Tagg-Krakauer duo took the Beethoven Room by storm as they presented one of the most remarkable concerts I have ever attended anywhere in the world; it entered into the heart of humankind exploring connective artistic tissues while teasing out and celebrating the differences...This was music-making at its best: joyful abandonment without a trace of inhibition.”
London Jazz Times: Review of Where Worlds Collide with Andre Petersen November 23, 2017 by Jon Turney
" An open-minded mix of traditions, and the bravura technique they also share. The results are reflective and exuberant, by turns, and enormously enjoyable throughout."
Volksblad
“...Each is a little work of art of imaginative sounds and poetic lyrics. I would not be surprised if many of the songs are not included later in the Afrikaans song treasury...”