In Sunday’s (1/6) Birmingham News (Alabama), Michael Huebner writes, “Gabriel Kahane resides in the nether-regions between pop and classical music, a domain that is being increasingly populated by artists from many musical persuasions. A singer-songwriter as well as composer-pianist, he has collaborated, on the one hand, with Sufjan Stevens, Rufus Wainwright and Chris Thile, and on the other with Jeremy Denk, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. That makes Kahane an ideal candidate to solo in the first concert in the Alabama Symphony’s 2012-13 The Classical EDGE series, which takes place Thursday at the Alys Stephens Center. … The [Alabama Symphony Orchestra] has made a huge mark at this blurred juncture, not only in this groundbreaking series but because of its three recent ASCAP awards for adventurous programming. If the name Kahane has a familiar ring to classical fans, that’s right, his father is Jeffrey Kahane, the world-renowned conductor and music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra whose own career straddles jazz, pop and classical. … Gabriel Kahane, 31, will be the vocalist, guitarist and pianist for Thursday’s concert, which starts at 8 p.m. ASO Assistant Conductor Roderick Cox conducts. It starts with ‘Try,’ a work by Brooklyn composer Andrew Norman that was premiered in 2011 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, John Adams conducting. … The program closes with Kahane’s ‘Crane Palimpsest,’ a work that evokes the poetry of Hart Crane, the Brooklyn Bridge and faded advertisements on historic structures. It is scored for chamber orchestra and tuned beer bottles.”
Posted January 7, 2013
