
© Kate Russel 2019
New Classical Music & Physical Theater
Tara Starling Khozein
Contact: tarakhozein@gmail.com
about
classical singer. improviser. teacher. co-creator. composer.
Tara Khozein is a soprano who makes concert music and theater. She was born in Ecuador to a mixed Iranian-American family, and has lived, studied, and worked across the US and Europe. As a multidisciplinary performer, she explores the intersections of classical and experimental singing, and physical theatre. She is also a musical director for theater and a performance director for musicians.
Tara holds an artist diploma in physical theatre from The Jacques Lecoq School in Paris, a B.M. in classical vocal performance, and is a lifelong student of classical and experimental singing. After her formal education, she lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she directed circus, immersive, operetta, and children's performances, and established her improvisation practice. While in Santa Fe, she became a company member of Theater Grottesco, and was on the original sound design and creation team for Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return, where she later served as the primary content director for immersive performance. She moved to Budapest at the end of 2019, and established an online voice studio during Covid, where she continues to teach students from around the world.
Her recent creative projects include her physical and vocal performance in ONCE WITHIN A TIME (2022), a film by Godfrey Reggio with music by Philip Glass, the central role in Samu Gryllus's interactive opera, GEISELOPER (2023), and her one-woman show (2023). In 2024 she will perform as a soloist in two world premieres by Czech composer Ondřej Adámek: INES at Opera Köln, and CONNECTION IMPOSSIBLE with Ensemble Modern at Bregenz Festival. She will also sing Kate Soper's one-woman chamber opera IPSA DIXIT with Chatter ABQ in Albuquerque, NM.
She is a member of The Tara and Rhonda Show, JazzaJ's Budapest Improvisors Orchestra, Timo Kinnunen's International Experimental Orchestra, and is the temporary artistic director of Budapest's Soharóza Experimental Choir. She also performs regularly in Budapest's underground music scene as a free improviser alongside classical, jazz, noise, and electronic musicians.
Tara released her first duo improvisation album in 2021 with contrabass player Carlos Santistevan of Santa Fe, NM. Her second duo improvisation album with multi-instrumentalist Etienne Rolin was released in Spring of 2022, and her third with saxophonist Rhonda Taylor, will be released in late 2023. (Probably.)
Tara is based in Budapest, Hungary.

© Raunak Kapoor 2022
upcoming events
Thursday November 17, 8pm @ FUGA, Budapest
Ariadne auf Naxos, Georg Benda (a melodrama)
Dora Petery, Martin Boross, Tara Khozein
Thursday November 23, 8pm, New Music Encounters International Music Festival, Brno
Solo Concert
Tuesday December 5, 8pm @ Lumen, Budapest
Christopher Robin Cox, Ajtai Peter, Hock Erno, Gyárfás Attila
Improvisation Concert
Wednesday December 20, 7:30pm @ Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest
Christmas Concert
Friday April 5, 8:00 @ Chatter, Albuquerque
Kate Soper's Ipsa Dixit
Tara Khozein, Jesse Tatum, David Felburg, Alan Zimmerman
Saturday & Sunday, April 20-21 @ Location TBA, Budapest 2nd district
SoundFishing / Hanghalászat
A new music theater performance
Ladik Katalin, Tara Khozein, Gyárfás Attila, Szekely Voland
June 16-July 5 @ Opera Köln
INES, a new opera by Ondřej Adámek
TBA @ Bregenzer Festspiele
Connection Impossible, a new music theater piece by Ondřej Adámek
with Ensemble Modern
Films
Once Within a Time
By Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass, and Jon Kane
Screening Now in the US and Canada
Credits: Hero, Emoji, and Vocals
Cicaverzum (Cat Call)
Directed by Rozália Szeleczki
Premiering at Tallinn Black Nights
Credits: Main Theme Lyricist & Singer