
VALENTINE'S DAY GALA 2020
FEBRUARY 14, 2019 @ 6:30 pm
217 East Main Street, Clayton, NC, 27520
Tickets: Tickets: $50 General; $45 Seniors 65 and over. Includes concert, full course meal, and reception.
Grammy-nominated clarinetist DAVID KRAKAUER and acclaimed virtuoso pianist KATHLEEN TAGG have been performing together since the 2012, drawing on their unique, collaborative sound to create genre-defying projects which produce new environments in each space they fill.
For the past decade Krakauer has emerged as a symphonic soloist of "astounding virtuosity and charisma" (Detroit Free Press) who brings his singular sound and powerful approach to the concert stage. Widely considered one of the greatest clarinetists on the planet, he has been praised internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music appearing with the world’s finest orchestras including the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, the Weimar Staatskapelle, the Orchestre de Lyon, and the Seattle Symphony.
South African-born pianist, composer and producer Kathleen Tagg, praised for her combining of "outstanding technique with deep musicality", has been based in New York since 2001. She has performed on four continents in leading venues such as Carnegie Hall, had her original music performed in venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center, appeared on a host of classical, world music and multi-genre recordings and produced numerous CDs and inter-disciplinary programs from South Africa to Los Angeles.
For Clayton Piano Festival’s Valentine’s Day Gala, they will present a diverse array of music having to do with connections of different kinds, featuring the greatest classics from Brahms and Debussy to their own compositions, world music, and even their original arrangements of jazz standards like "Body and Soul."
This event is a favorite among followers of CPF's performances and newcomers alike. It includes a full course meal, cash bar, and reception afterwards, where attendees can mingle with the performers.

Artists
"David Krakauer is 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."
​– The Wall Street Journal
Only a select few artists have the ability to convey their message to the back row, to galvanize an audience with a visceral power that connects on a universal level. David Krakauer is such an artist. Widely considered one of the greatest clarinetists on the planet, he has been praised internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music. In 2015 he received both a Grammy nomination in the Chamber music/small ensemble category as soloist with the conductorless orchestra A Far Cry, and a Juno nomination for the CD "Akoka" with cellist Matt Haimovitz.
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Krakauer’s discography contains some of the most important clarinet recordings of recent decades. Among them are The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (Osvaldo Golijov and the Kronos Quartet/Nonesuch) received the Diapason D'Or in France, The Twelve Tribes (Label Bleu) which was designated album of the year in the jazz category for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, and Paul Moravec’s Pulitzer Prize winning composition Tempest Fantasy(Naxos). He has also recorded with violinist Itzhak Perlman/ the Klezmatics (Angel) and Dawn Upshaw/ Osvaldo Golijov (Deutsche Gramophon). His unique voice can be heard in Danny Elfman's score for the Ang Lee film Taking Woodstock and throughout Sally Potter's The Tango Lesson. Recent recordings include his 2015 album Checkpoint with his band Ancestral Groove (Label Bleu), Paul Moravec’s Clarinet Concerto with The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP Sound) and The Big Picture on his own label, Table Pounding Records in 2014. Upcoming releases in '18-'19 will be concerti written for Krakauer by composers Wlad Marhulets and Mathew Rosenblum.
Writer Mark Stryker hinted at the visceral nature of Krakauer’s performance in his Detroit Free Press review: “Krakauer played with astounding virtuosity and charisma. A furiously improvised cadenza leapt between low and high registers in a way that suggested John Coltrane, building to an excited peak. After the concerto he also offered an encore, improvising by himself with an air of ritual, before playing a swift klezmer dance with the orchestra.”
As an esteemed educator, David Krakauer gives clinics and masterclasses all over the world and is on the clarinet and chamber music faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, the Mannes College of Music (New School), The Bard Conservatory and NYU.
