ABOUT KRAKAUER & TAGG

Grammy-nominated classical, world music artist DAVID KRAKAUER and acclaimed South African-raised pianist/composer/producer KATHLEEN TAGG have created a body of work that defies stylistic confines and embodies a celebration of identity, communication, dialogue 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 duo performance programs. 

They started out by creating their acoustic chamber music programs featuring new works and their arrangements of the works of composer-performer friends. Shortly afterwards, they developed their unique electro-acoustic show Breath & Hammer with live video feed, following that with a fully immersive audio-visual surround-sound concert/art installation experience titled The Ties That Bind Us with video designer Jesse Gilbert for the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. Their unique programs live at the intersection of classical, world music and jazz, and often incorporate loops, samples, sound design and visual elements. Recent co-composed works include an evening-length collaborative work called Keepers of the Flame with musicians from Syria, Ukraine and Poland which was commissioned by the Center for International Dialogue at the Borderlands Foundation in Poland, as well as a Klezmer Fantasy for concert wind band written for the Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Krakauer & Tagg co-composed a clarinet concerto which was premiered in 2021 by the Santa Rosa Symphony and conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong, and subsequently in Paris’ Cité de la Musique, the Hula Center in Eugene Oregon, and with the Sinfonia Varsovia in Warsaw, Poland. The score for Minyan by filmmaker Eric Steel, which Krakauer & Tagg not only co-wrote as a duo, but also performed and produced, premiered at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival and is their first feature film project.

 ALBUM: BREATH & HAMMER (2020)

 MEDIA

 KRAKAUER & TAGG 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…”

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.”

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).”