Famed Singer-Songwriter Gabriel Kahane to Perform in Hattiesburg

Mon, 04/10/2023 - 09:15am | By: Mike Lopinto

The Connoisseurs Series at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Music presents celebrated singer-songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Gabrial Kahane, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Intermezzo @ Woods Gallery. 

The concert is presented free and open to the public due to the annual support of the Mr. and Mrs. James Simrall, Jr. Arts Endowment. Seating is very limited.

“Gabriel tells stories through his songwriting and delivery and will bring a different and refreshing flavor to our Connoisseurs Series,” said Dr. Kimberley Davis, voice professor at Southern Miss and event host. “He is a unique, contemporary vocal performer with a style of music we have not previously hosted. Because of our diverse music community, with students of eclectic musical interests, I believe style, will be well-received by our students and community friends who share his multifaceted, musical vision.”

Kahane is a musician and storyteller whose work cuts to the heart. As a singer-songwriter, his most recent release is “Magnificent Bird” (Nonesuch Records), a meditation on grief and gratitude, written during the chaotic month leading up to the 2020 election.

Highlights of the 2022-23 season include premiere performances of a folk opera, “The Right to Be Forgotten,” with the Oregon and Cincinnati Symphonies; a recital at London’s Southbank Centre; appearances with the Danish String Quartet; and the San Francisco Symphony premiere of his housing oratorio “emergency shelter intake form.”

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” — a chronicle of the composer’s 2016 post-election railway journey —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 Caroline Shaw, Anthony McGill, Pekka Kuusisto, and the Attacca Quartet. 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 the Gabriel Kahane: Words & Music website.

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 has just begun his second term as Creative Chair of the Oregon Symphony.