Gabriel Kahane
Council: Gabriel Kahane & Pekka Kuusisto
City Recital Hall
2 Angel Pl
Aug 12, 2024
7:00 PM GMT+10
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About this concert
After nearly a decade of musical friendship, it seems only fitting that the cult American singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane and iconic Finnish musician Pekka Kuusisto have formalized their collaboration under the moniker Council. Now, they present an evening of intimate and sonically varied songs and chamber music, written during several writing retreats in Northern Karelia and Portland, Oregon.
With this new body of work, Kahane and Kuusisto attempt to locate the universal in the personal and vice versa: here are stories of individual and collective grief; of nostalgia, adolescence, and memory-play; of the joy, wonder, and perplexity of fatherhood in an era of global instability. As they explore and deepen their own friendship on stage, these two relentlessly searching artists offer a musical tapestry depicting the complexities of life in the 21st century.
The program is rounded out with music by, among others, J. S. Bach and Nico Muhly.
Gabriel Kahane—piano, voice, electric & acoustic guitars, harmonium, loops
Pekka Kuusisto—violin, voice, harmonium, four-string electric guitar, loops, electronics
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What fans are saying
Allie
May 20th 2022
Gabriel Kahane is the musical hero we don't deserve. Such a sensitive, intelligent, and masterful artist, and so approachable. It was a gift to be able to see him perform live at this venue.
Minneapolis, MN@Parkway Theatre
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About the venue
City Recital Hall is a purpose-built live performance venue with world-class acoustics located in the heart of Sydney’s CBD.
City Recital Hall presents a curated program...
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Gabriel Kahane Biography
Gabriel Kahane is a musician and storyteller.
Highlights of the 24/25 season include an off-Broadway run of two solo music theatre pieces, Book of Travelers and Magnificent Bird, which Gabriel will perform in repertory at Playwrights Horizons in New York; the tour of a new collaborative work, Hexagons, written and performed with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Caroline Shaw; the world premiere of an orchestral song cycle for the San Francisco and Oregon Symphonies addressing the 2020 Almeda wildfire; and the premiere of a new clarinet concerto for Anthony McGill.
Kahane’s album & stage spectacle, The Ambassador, was produced at the BAM Next Wave Festival in 2014, under the direction of Tony-winner John Tiffany. That work was followed by Book of Travelers, which was staged at BAM in 2017 and released as an album by Nonesuch in 2018.
Gabriel’s creative collaborators range from Phoebe Bridgers, Paul Simon, Sylvan Esso, Chris Thile, and Sufjan Stevens, to the Danish String Quartet, Attacca Quartet, and Pekka Kuusisto, with whom he plays as the duo Council. His prose has appeared in The New Yorker online and in The New York Times; a wide-ranging newsletter “Words and Music,” can be accessed at gabrielkahane.substack.com.
The recipient of a 2021 Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Kahane recently relocated to Portland, OR, where he lives with his family and serves as Creative Chair of the Oregon Symphony.
Read MoreHighlights of the 24/25 season include an off-Broadway run of two solo music theatre pieces, Book of Travelers and Magnificent Bird, which Gabriel will perform in repertory at Playwrights Horizons in New York; the tour of a new collaborative work, Hexagons, written and performed with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Caroline Shaw; the world premiere of an orchestral song cycle for the San Francisco and Oregon Symphonies addressing the 2020 Almeda wildfire; and the premiere of a new clarinet concerto for Anthony McGill.
Kahane’s album & stage spectacle, The Ambassador, was produced at the BAM Next Wave Festival in 2014, under the direction of Tony-winner John Tiffany. That work was followed by Book of Travelers, which was staged at BAM in 2017 and released as an album by Nonesuch in 2018.
Gabriel’s creative collaborators range from Phoebe Bridgers, Paul Simon, Sylvan Esso, Chris Thile, and Sufjan Stevens, to the Danish String Quartet, Attacca Quartet, and Pekka Kuusisto, with whom he plays as the duo Council. His prose has appeared in The New Yorker online and in The New York Times; a wide-ranging newsletter “Words and Music,” can be accessed at gabrielkahane.substack.com.
The recipient of a 2021 Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Kahane recently relocated to Portland, OR, where he lives with his family and serves as Creative Chair of the Oregon Symphony.
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