© Kate Russel 2019
I'm Tara khozein
/ˈtɑɹə xoʊˈzeɪn/ or TA-ruh ko-ZAYN
I am a classical singer, improviser, voice teacher, song maker*, and theater artist. I was born in Ecuador to a mixed Iranian-American family, was raised in New Mexico, and have lived, studied, and worked across the US and Europe. I explore the many intersections of concert music and theatre with a special interest in collaboration and extended vocal techniques**. I also teach singing, am a music director for theater, and a stage director for musicians.
After my formal education (classical singing at NMSU & physical theater at the Jacques Lecoq School), I moved back to my hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I directed circus, immersive theater, operetta, and children's and teen's performances, and established a sonic improvisation practice. While in Santa Fe, I became the lead teacher at Santa Fe Performing Arts, a company member of Theater Grottesco, and one of the original contributing musical artists at Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return, where I later became a performer and eventually the content director for immersive performance. I moved to Budapest at the end of 2019, and became a part of the free improvisation, contemporary classical music, and experimental music scenes, performing alongside classical, jazz, noise, folk, pop, and electronic musicians. After teaching in-person voice lessons for over a decade, I also established an online voice studio.
My recent creative projects include two world premieres by Czech composer Ondřej Adámek: INES at Opera Köln, and CONNECTION IMPOSSIBLE with Ensemble Modern at the Bregenz Festival; Until there is nothing left to forgive with fine artist Zahra Marwan; Kate Soper's one-woman chamber opera IPSA DIXIT with Chatter ABQ; physical and vocal performances in ONCE WITHIN A TIME, a film by Godfrey Reggio with music by Philip Glass; the central role in Samu Gryllus's interactive opera, HOST OPERA; and my one-woman touring show IN TO OUT.
I am a member of multiple ensembles and bands including Kat and the Devil, PONT, Budapest Improvisors Orchestra, and Timo Kinnunen's International Experimental Orchestra. I was also the interim artistic director of Budapest's Soharóza Experimental Choir in their 2023-24 season.
I have released four duo improvisation albums: Amuse-Bouches with Rhonda Taylor, Live at Lumen with Thea Soti, Burdeo-Buda-Bridges with Etienne Rolin, and Iterations (2021) with Carlos Santistevan. I also wrote a song used in Aida Shirazi’s “Yearning, Every Dawn” which premiered at Ojai Festival in 2023. A vocal improvisation album with visual artist and vocal improviser Brian Belott is also somewhere in the ether, as is an album with pianist/composer/vocalist Ernő Rubik.***
I'm based in Brooklyn, NY and Budapest, HU.
* this is a term I've started to use recently. I write songs for solo voice, but songwriter sounds like I'm good at playing the guitar, and composer sounds like I know what all those saxophone transpositions are.
** extended vocal techniques are ways of vocalizing that are not traditionally used in classical music descending from the European tradition, but can be found in other traditions around the world
*** You can also find a classical album on Spotify if you search my name, but when I recorded it, I was recovering from working with a very bad voice teacher, and I wasn't singing very well. This is part of my story, as it is of many singers' stories. Recovering from the vocal abuse I received from that teacher has made me a smarter singer and a better teacher for others.

© Raunak Kapoor 2022
upcoming
July 24. Budapest, HU. @ Opus Jazz Club
BAD ADVICE with KAT & THE DEVIL
mad hat improvisation on curated text
with Berci Márkos, Oliver Mayne, Péter Ajtaj, and Szilveszter Miklós
July 26. Water Mill, NY. @ The Watermill Center
longform improvisation
with Brian Belott
August 8. Albuquerque, NM. @ Albuquerque Museum
SCHOENBERG & HINDEMITH: String Quartets with Soprano
soprano soloist
with ChatterABQ
August 14. Santa Fe, NM. @ The Lensic
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES: EIGHT SONGS FOR A MAD KING
chamber opera (director)
with Michael Hix and ChatterABQ
August 16-24. Bath, ME. @ The Chocolate Church
BRIDGE PROJECT: MEMORY
multidisciplinary site-specific performance (co-director)
with Martin Boross
September 13. Budapest, HU. @ BMC Library
COMPASS - Compositions by Horváth Balázs
soprano soloist
with Péter Kiss
September 19–22, 24, 27. Vienna, AT. @ WEST/WU
MusikTheaterTage Wien
Escape Room Opera
October 29. Brooklyn, NY. @ Roulette
THE RISE OF THE NOVEL
Scored Improvisation Concert
November 1-2. Taos, NM @ Taos Chamber Music
THE EVERY DAY SACRED: Messiean, Oliveros, Soper, Tailleferre, Von Bingen
Piano & Voice Concert
with Judith Gordon
Films
Once Within a Time
By Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass, and Jon Kane
Screening Now in the US and Canada
Credits: Hero and Soundtrack Vocals
Cicaverzum (Cat Call)
Directed by Rozália Szeleczki
Premiered at Tallinn Black Nights
Credits: Main Theme Lyricist & Singer