Kathleen Tagg

Based in New York since 2001, Kathleen is a South African-born pianist, composer and producer. 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. She has appeared on a host of recordings of classical, world music and multi-genre recordings, and has produced numerous recordings and inter-disciplinary programs from Cape Town to Los Angeles. She has created her own unique language at the piano, made up of techniques she developed and experimented with to expand the piano into a full electro - acoustic orchestra.

She has performed live on WQXR New York, WGBH Boston and France’s RFI Live, and her work has been profiled on NPR’s Morning Edition (Jon Kalish), and in publications such as Le Monde, Bandcamp Daily, Mezzo TV, BBC Magazine, the New York Times and the Guardian.

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. 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.

Her work has been released on record labels NAXOS, Ossia Records, Table Pounding Records, Alpha Classics and Gallo Africa, and she has been praised for her combining of “outstanding technique with deep musicality”. A 2014 South African Music Awards nominee for best classical or instrumental album, she has performed in concert with some of the world’s leading musicians, and the remarkable breadth of her collaborations defines her multi-faceted career. In 2014 she released a recording of the songs of Jake Heggie with American soprano Regina Zona on the NAXOS label. Her album Breath & Hammer with Grammy-nominated duo partner David Krakauer was released on their own Table Pounding Records, as was her recent project which she co-created and produced, Mazel Tov Cocktail Party. Her project Where Worlds Collide with great South African jazz pianist Andre Petersen was praised by the London Jazz Times as being: “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.”

Kathleen is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, (which awarded her the Helen Cohn Award as outstanding Doctoral Graduate), Mannes College the New School (MM) and the University of Cape Town, and her principle teachers were Nina Svetlanova, Graham Fitch, Lamar Crowson and Claudine van Breda. She is also indebted to all her teachers in harmony, counterpoint and orchestration (in particular Shirley Gie at UCT); her cello, chamber and orchestra instructors, as well as her incredible collaborators who taught her so much. She was a 2017 Exploring the Con Edison Exploring the Metropolis composer in residence, and a 2014-15 Dramatist Guild fellow.