Princeton University Concerts’ (PUC) new “Crossroads” series aims to draw together musicians and music from around the globe.
Debuting the series at Richardson Auditorium on Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m., “Crossroads” will premiere with acclaimed singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane.
Bringing his song cycle, “8,980: Book of Travelers” with him, he plans to give voice to the stories of Americans across the country immediately following the 2016 presidential election.
In these divided times, music has an ever-more important role as a universal language of connection, and a reminder of our shared experience. The morning after the 2016 presidential election, Kahane packed a suitcase and took a two-week, 8,980-mile train trip across the U.S. without a phone or internet. His resulting song cycle, drawn from the kaleidoscopic spectrum of his fellow travelers, is an eloquent cry for reconciliation and an attempt to rediscover our collective humanity in the face of all that seeks to separate us.
The song cycle, which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in 2017, is performed by the composer, singing from the piano.
In an interview on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Kahane shared that although the idea for his journey across the country was instigated by the political climate, the song-cycle is a simpler “plea for empathy. I think songwriting is a way to deliver that message. I think empathy is one of the primary currencies of any type of storytelling and songwriting is no exception to that.”
The song-cycle addresses issues of love, economic privilege, race, military service, friendship, death and more.
Kahane has collaborated with a diverse array of artists, including Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, Blake Mills, Chris Thile, Punch Brothers and Paul Simon – for whom he arranged “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, heard throughout Simon’s farewell tour this year.
As a composer, he has been commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, the BAM, Carnegie Hall, A Far Cry, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. For the Oregon Symphony, he wrote “emergency shelter intake form,” a nearly hour-long oratorio confronting the resurgence of deep poverty in America, and in particular, the national crises of housing insecurity and homelessness. That work premiered in May 2018 and was recorded shortly thereafter for release this year. Other orchestral highlights have included solo appearances with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and The Knights, with whom Gabriel recorded his orchestral song cycle “Crane Palimpsest,” following a performance at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall.
An avid theater artist, Kahane has appeared twice at the BAM Next Wave Festival, in 2014 with the critically-lauded staged version of “The Ambassador,” directed by Tony-winner John Tiffany; and returning in 2017 with “8,980: Book of Travelers,” directed by Daniel Fish. He is also the composer-lyricist of the musical “February House,” which premiered in 2012 at the Public Theater.
This fall, he made his Broadway debut with an original score for Kenneth Lonergan’s “The Waverly Gallery.”
A graduate of Brown University and two-time MacDowell Colony fellow, Kahane lives in Brooklyn.
PUC’s “Crossroads” series aims to distill chamber music to its purest and most elemental form, highlighting music’s steadfast intimacy and uncanny capacity to tell stories and spark new conversations.
Prior to Kahane’s song-cycle performance, he will participate in a free public discussion with Princeton University professor Simon Morrison at the Princeton Public Library on Feb. 13 at 7 p.m.
This new program of public talks with artists on PUC’s “Crossroads” series provides a setting in which the public can engage in new conversations sparked by musical storytelling. The public has the opportunity to get to know the musicians and hear about their relationship to the music they will perform in these hour-long, free public talks.
In celebration of PUC’s 125th anniversary this season, this series is a tribute to all that chamber music can encompass. The final performance in the series will be on April 16 at 7:30 p.m. in a duo performance by mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital and bassist Omer Avital. More information is available at princetonuniversityconcerts.org.
Tickets for the concert are $30 general and $10 students. They are available at princetonuniversityconcerts.org, or by calling 609-258-9220. The public talk at the Princeton Public Library is free.