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Performance photo of soprano and theater artist Tara Khozein

New & old songs

pre & live-composed

​TarA Khozein

Soprano

© 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.

Head shot of soprano and theater artist Tara Khozein

© 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

RESILIENCE OF SISYPHOS

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

Stream here

Cicaverzum (Cat Call)

Directed by Rozália Szeleczki

Premiered at Tallinn Black Nights

Credits: Main Theme Lyricist & Singer

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