The Keepers of the Flame
“The goal of the Cali School of Music's Immersive Residency Program is to bring world-class artists into our school for an extended period of time in order to "connect the dots" between otherwise siloed programs, majors, and colleges. While each individual artist goes about this differently, David and Kathleen modeled what this innovative program is really about. They brought our classical, jazz, theory, composition, and recording arts and production areas seamlessly while developing a one-of-a-kind culminating concert at Merkin Hall for all to enjoy. Our students were front and center throughout; David and Kathleen certainly left this place better and more inspired than they found it.”
- Anthony Mazzochi, Cali School of Music, Montclair State University
Keepers of the Flame is a unique, immersive opportunity for students to work together with Krakauer & Tagg to co-create and perform something with personal meaning and resonance. David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg lead artistic explorations with the students of your school to form a unique new version of this work that reflects their own thoughts, desires and perspectives.
“Keepers of the Flame”, a multi-part collaborative evening-length work, unites performers of diverse backgrounds and traditions. Designed to be collaboratively developed during an immersive workshop period, each new setting and performance yields a completely new musical experience: the work is highly structured/composed, yet is built to include space for musical contributions and offerings of every participating musician. Additionally, each new setting is completely re-orchestrated. This can be a combination of classical and jazz students, world music artists, spoken word artists or rappers, or any groupings of musicians that include reading and improvising musicians. For the premiere in 2017, Krakauer & Tagg led a weeklong residency and concert at the Borderlands Foundation’s International Centre for Dialogue in Poland. In 2023, they led a collaboration with NYC’s Special Music School and Montclair State University to create and perform a new version of the piece at Merkin Hall. 2025–26 brings “Keepers of the Flame” residencies at Maine Jewish Museum & Quick Center for the Arts (CT).
The Keepers of the Flame is intended as an artistic response to the challenges of the modern world, and demands a culture of solidarity in response to the threat of deepening social and cultural divisions. The piece was designed to be transferred to multiple different settings, contexts, and communities, while dealing with the expansive ideas of bridge-building, listening, offering, and inclusion of ideas from each musician.
More information & Background:
The original creation was designed for the multi-generational Sejny klezmer band, a community initiative of the Borderlands Foundation, which sought to honor the space in which the Borderlands’ Cultural Dialogue Center is housed: a former Jewish synagogue, home to the Jews of Sejny, formerly 24% of the population, and now a town with zero Jewish residents. The piece was originally created during an intensive collaborative workshop period at the International Dialogue Center (Krasnagruda) incorporating contributions from the klezmer orchestra and soloists from Syria and Ukraine.