Gabriel Kahane is a singer-songwriter, pianist, and composer, whose work lives increasingly at the intersection of art and social practice. His 2018 Nonesuch Records debut, Book of Travelers, hailed by Rolling Stone as “a stunning portrait of a singular moment in America,” chronicles an 8,980 mile transcontinental train trip that he embarked on the morning after the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Gabriel is grateful to be working with and within an incredibly vibrant and supportive community of musicians. Among his most memorable collaborations have been projects with Paul Simon, Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, Caroline Shaw, Brooklyn Rider, Blake Mills, Chris Thile, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, for whom he served as composer-in-residence from 2011 to 2013. He has been commissioned by, among others, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Crossing, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, A Far Cry, The Knights, yMusic, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
His 2018 oratorio, emergency shelter intake form, exploring housing & homelessness, was premiered & recorded by the Oregon Symphony, and is scheduled for performances in Detroit, Orlando, Milwaukee, Louisville, and New York in the coming seasons. In August 2019, he was named the inaugural creative chair for the Oregon Symphony.
An avid theater artist, Kahane has been commissioned twice by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which in 2014 presented The Ambassador, directed by Tony Award-winner John Tiffany, and in 2017 presented 8980: Book of Travelers. Last year, he made his Broadway debut with a score for Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery, starring Elaine May and Lucas Hedges.
A graduate of Brown University, Kahane lives in Brooklyn.
Portrait by Josh Goleman
