“…Krakauer joined with the adventurous South African pianist Kathleen Tagg in an exciting new duo project known as Breath & Hammer. 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."
– Bill Milkowski, Downbeat Magazine (Full Review: DOWNBEAT MAG on a performance at LPR, New York)
ABOUT KRAKAUER & TAGG
Grammy-nominated classical, world music artist DAVID KRAKAUER and South African pianist/composer/producer KATHLEEN TAGG have created 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 acoustic, electric and inter-disciplinary 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 unique programs live at the intersection of classical, world music and jazz, and often incorporate loops, samples, sound design and visual elements. 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.
THE MAKING OF BREATH & HAMMER: THE TIES THAT BIND US
Photo by Jill Steinberg at National Sawdust 2016.
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.
Read more about David Krakauer & Kathleen Tagg here.
WATCH BREATH & HAMMER
Live from National Sawdust, New York, FERUS Festival, 2016.