Grammy Nominee David Krakauer to Perform at PSO Musicale, 2/22

2015 Grammy Award-nominee clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Kathleen Tagg will perform as "Breath & Hammer" at The Princeton Symphony Orchestra's Mid-Winter Musicale Sunday, February 22, at 5 pm, at the home of Toni Besselaar in Princeton. The evening's program spans Brahms to Debussy, to Gershwin, plus new arrangements of songs by John Zorn and Kinan Azmeh, as well as traditional Klezmer music.

Known simply as "Krakauer" to his fervent following, Mr. Krakauer is nothing less than an American original who has embarked on a tremendous journey, transforming the music of his Eastern European Jewish heritage into something uniquely contemporary. That journey has led him to an astounding diversity of projects and collaborations ranging from solo appearances with orchestras to major festival concerts with his own improvisation-based bands. Mr. Krakauer's album "Dreams and Prayers" is up for a 2015 Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble category. The Wall Street Journal praises him as "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."

Ms. Tagg is a South African pianist, composer, and producer who relocated to New York Citymore than a decade ago. In 2014, she was nominated for best classical album at the South African Music Awards and recently was named a 2014-15 Dramatist Guild of America Fellow for her musical "Erika's Wall." New York Concert Review hails her as "a musician of such grand endowment and unsparing discipline."

The Bank of Princeton is the exclusive underwriter of the Mid-Winter Musicale. The PSO is grateful to Toni Besselaar for opening her home for this special concert. The Musicale committee which planned this event includes: Co-Chairs Ruta K. Smithson and Martha Vaughn, as well as Leigh Bartlett, Kathleen Biggins, Debora Haines, Peggy Hughes-Fulmer, and Deborah Lunder.