EDUCATIONAL RESIDENCY OFFERINGS

Their offerings for universities, colleges and other institutions are uniquely relevant to a changing world, where authentic collaborations, empathy, and the ability to build strong, unique projects melded with authentic musical voices, is vital.

The range and scope of their artistic output is staggering. They have been heard on some of the world’s major stages, jazz festivals and clubs. Their work has been performed at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, Carnegie Hall in New York and the National Gallery in Washington DC. From intimate, highly personal duo projects with their own repertoire and sound, touring to some of the world’s biggest stages, to large evening-length multimedia immersive concert experiences, to writing collaboratively for symphony orchestra, to creating and producing film scores (Berlin Biennale, OutFest), to large-scale cultural dialogue projects, to multi-cultural dance pop projects bringing together musicians and beat makers from very different backgrounds. (featured on NPR Morning edition with touring in the USA & Europe).

Krakauer & Tagg were inaugural artists-in-residence at the Brown Arts Initiative. They have also done large-scale cross-campus residencies for Brandeis University’s Music Unites Us program and a large-scale residency for the 92nd St Y, creating projects for, and performing for nearly 6000 NYC school children. This is just their work together. Their individual projects cover yet wider territory.

Widely considered one of the greatest clarinetists on the planet, David Krakauer has been praised internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music. "David Krakauer is such an overwhelmingly expressive clarinetist who moves so seamlessly between different genres that for a minute you'd almost think that there's no appreciable difference between jazz, klezmer and formal classical music." — Will Friedwald, The Wall Street Journal

Kathleen Tagg is a pianist, composer and producer who has performed in some of the world’s leading halls, had her work performed on four continents (Paris’ Cité de la Musique, Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal; Festival Aix-en-Provence; Kölner Philharmonie; San Francisco Performances; Lincoln Center to name just a few). She has consistently created new and visionary productions and projects that blur genre boundaries, and has produced cross-genre, classical and world music albums.

Krakauer & Tagg Workshops:

1. Creating new work


Creating with Deep Authenticity: Workshops, Talks & Residencies
Our philosophy on creating is to find each person’s unique voice, so that projects reflect authenticity and deep connectedness. 
These workshops follow practical steps on travelling deep within to really connect with ideas that are truly connected and committed, so that each participant is really making work that they most want and need to make.
In these very hands-on workshops, we focus on what it takes to make projects a reality – from artistic choices to collaborations, to how-tos for getting the projects out into the world.


2. Creating Deep, Authentic collaborations: 


Showing up as we are, in our entirety: Workshops, Talks & Residencies
Krakauer & Tagg have been creating and performing collaboratively for the past decade. Their creations have been seen and heard around the world. From (for example): "Abraham Inc." (Jewish/African American meeting with David Krakauer, funk legend Fred Wesley and beat maker and producer Socalled), "Breath & Hammer" with Krakauer & Tagg, and “Where Worlds Collide” (2 piano project with Kathleen and the late South African jazz pianist Andre Petersen)



3. SHAPING VIBRANT, MULTI-FACETED Career Paths


Practical Workshops and Q&A Sessions: The things we wished we had known when we were starting out:
Building networks, opportunities and projects that resonate.

Both David and Kathleen have had very varied careers as performers, composers, curators, teachers, producers of shows, series and records, including their own label, Table Pounding Records (Their Breath & Hammer was Le Monde’s “Indespensable album”, Mezzo TV’s top jazz album, Bandcamp’s top jazz albums and on the Trans Global World Music charts for 3 months; Krakauer's Checkpoint received a coveted 5-star review in Downbeat Magazine in 2016, The Big Picture received wide acclaim and radio play, and Tweet Tweet peaked at No. 1 in Funk and No. 1 in Jewish and Yiddish Music, and at No. 35 in music sales on Amazon and reached No. 7 on Billboard’s Jazz Chart and Tagg’s Where Worlds Collide received acclaim from publications such as London Jazz Times).

They talk practically about how they have navigated their careers as independents thus far, and how that still continues to evolve.


4. INNOVATIONS IN CHAMBER MUSIC

This course is designed to help musicians (all genres welcome!) broaden their horizons both through developing their ensemble performance skills and expanding their concepts of multi-faceted programming. The ultimate goal of the course is to help participants find their own unique voice both as soloists and ensemble players.
This course can be adapted for classical, jazz and world musicians- both soloists and pre-formed ensembles.

Masterclasses:

Masterclass Offerings: David Krakauer: Clarinet, 
Chamber Music
, Klezmer
, Contemporary Music
 


Krakauer as Educator at a Glance:
Faculty: Manhattan School of Music (clarinet, chamber music, contemporary performance program);
Mannes College of Music The New School (clarinet, chamber music, clarinet class, performance class);
Bard Conservatory (clarinet, chamber music)

Summers: Accademia Chigiana: Siena, Italy. 

Carnegie Hall Workshop
Workshops:
Masterclasses at clinics on 3 continents for the Selmer company

UCLA Regents Scholar (in residence)
Mentor: Ensemble Connect

David Krakauer is a world-renowned soloist, recording artist, and band leader who has distinguished himself as one of the most singular voices on the clarinet today. Krakauer is a Grammy-nominated musician for classical chamber music, as well as having received the German Critics Prize for best jazz album, and the French Diapason D’Or for his recording with the Kronos Quartet.
He is also internationally acclaimed as a leading educator. Aside from countless clinics and masterclasses that he has given in universities around the US and in Europe, he is also on the clarinet and chamber music faculties of three of the top music conservatories in the world today: The Manhattan School of Music, The Mannes College of Music (at The New School), and The Bard Conservatory. His students have gone on to have major performing and teaching careers as soloists, symphony orchestra musicians, or jazz artists in a wide variety of settings including the Imani Wind Quintet, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Zodiac Trio, and the Orchestre National de France

Masterclass Offerings: Kathleen Tagg: 
Piano, 
Chamber Music, 
Contemporary Music
, Art song, American art song:

Tagg as Educator at a Glance:
Former Faculty: Manhattan School of Music;

University of the Witwatersrand: Visiting Artist in Residence (2018)- monthlong residency working with composition students to create collaborative works with electronics.
Summer: SongFest at Colburn (2014-2016) coaching, performing & curating programs of new works
Masterclasses, workshops, lectures across the United States (including Brandeis, UGA, Hamilton College, Brown, Manhattan School of Music, Connecticut College)
Inaugural Artist in Residence at Brown Arts Center (2015)

Kathleen Tagg, a 2014 South African Music Awards nominee for best classical album, has performed on four continents with a host of leading musicians, and the remarkable breadth of her collaborations defines her multi-faceted career. Kathleen holds the Helen Cohn Award as outstanding Doctoral graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where she taught for four years. She has additionally taught at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and was on the faculty of SongFest at Colburn in Los Angeles from 2013 to 2015. She has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Southern Africa, and Asia, and has appeared on a multitude of recordings, from classical to world music. She has consistently created new and visionary productions and projects that blur genre boundaries. She has presented masterclasses, workshops, and lectures across the United States and South Africa and has curated performances and festivals from Cape Town to Los Angeles- many of which blend art forms or genres or both. She has produced all of her own recordings (classical, world music, pop, film scores) as well as those of others. Her work has been heard on major world stages: from Paris’ Cité de la Musique to the Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal; Festival Aix-en-Provence; Kölner Philharmonie; San Francisco Performances; Lincoln Center to name just a few. 


TALKS / LECTURES / Q&A

David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg are not only renowned musicians, but they are also individuals who have come from a particular historical place and time. Krakauer was a leading figure in both the 2nd Klezmer Revival of the late 80s and early 90s, and the Radical Jewish Culture movement that coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening up of Eastern Europe. Tagg came of age in South Africa during the first free and democratic elections in 1994, when Nelson Mandela came to power. 



Krakauer and Tagg share these experiences and their philosophies as civically-engaged artists with a purpose to foster human connection through a flexible combination of performances, masterclasses, lecture presentations, and conversational question/answer sessions.

These activities immerse participants in a setting designed to encourage exploration of their own cultural and personal identities, and learn to express themselves.

Therefore, the talks and lecture/demonstrations that they offer are not only of interest to music departments, but also applicable to other areas of study within the academic institution (ie. Jewish Studies, African Studies, Integrated Arts, Sociology etc.).



SAMPLE TALKS:

A Musical and Personal Journey Through Klezmer Music
A lecture-demonstration by David Krakauer on his multi-faceted relationship to Jewish music. It describes the trajectory of Krakauer's career and is a great opportunity to interact with students about different/alternative ("out of the box") career choices. Krakauer plays recorded examples plus performs live. This could be for music students, ethnomusicology students, Jewish studies or possibly even sociology students. The talk can be expanded to include a discussion around the fact that Krakauer started playing klezmer and exploring his Jewish identity in the late 80s right at the moment when the Soviet Union was falling apart, Eastern Europe was opening up and people in the West started to have more access to Eastern Europe. The greater socio-political context will be tied in to his personal experiences during that time.

5. The Neighbor Down the Road: Perspectives on Music in Cape Town
A lecture and Q&A by Kathleen Tagg looking at the role of music as a marker of identity in a melting-pot city that has been built on immigration and migration. A large definer of the city in the 20th century has been the geographic separation of its citizens along racial lines, and though there have been many sincere efforts at reconciliation, the notion of “otherness” is still a major definer of relationship across racial divides.

TESTIMONIAL
"It was a privilege to have you both in residence at Brown University. We are deeply grateful that you shared not only your extraordinary talents and innovative music, but your heartfelt stories and perspectives on living a life open to music making of all kinds. One of the things we gleaned from students during our planning process last spring is their hunger to learn from artists who have chosen a creative path as vocation — so your insights were especially meaningful. And we’re all still in awe of your blowout performance on Friday night! Truly exceptional. We couldn’t have asked for more inspired musicians to serve as our inaugural artists-in-residence of the Brown Arts Initiative."– Anne Bergeron, Managing Director, Arts Initiative, Brown University

More information on David Krakauer: www.davidkrakauer.com
More information on Kathleen Tagg: www.kathleentagg.com
More information on their Production COmpany & Record Label: www.tablepoundingmusic.com