Karen Kohler, voice Daryl Kojak, piano Recorded live at Rose Hall at Lincoln Center, NYC, on opening night of the 2023 Mabel Mercer Cabaret Convention. Music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. Opening monologue and English lyric translation by Karen Kohler. Photo above by James Gavin.
On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, Noa Levy and I offer Deutschlandlied-Hatikvah, our reimagining of the German and Israeli National Anthems performed acapella as the closing piece of our show "The Home I Love." Our concert was sponsored by the German Consulate of San Francisco and presented at Temple Emanuel-El on June 7, 2017. One day we'll sing it live for you [...]
As a new year dawns, I share with you this sentiment which is as true as ever and boy do I love singing it! There's a change in the weather, a change in the sea From now on there'll be a change in me My walk will be different, my talk and my name Nuthin' about me is goin' [...]
SURABAYA SANTA from yours truly, Mrs. Claus at the North Pole. HAPPY HOLIDAYS, one and All! Surabaya Santa Karen Kohler, voice Doug Oberhamer, piano Gregory Chudzik, bass Recorded live at Feinstein's, NYC music/lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
Celebrating 25 years as a professional singer. Feeling so grateful! The muse is dancing and Gaia is singing through me. Have My Heart (music/lyrics: Karen Kohler)
Words! Words! I'm so sick of words! I get words all day through; First from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do? Don't talk of stars burning above; If you're in love, show me! ~ from My Fair Lady (lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) Think about the last time you played with a baby. How [...]
Performers are revealers; we lay a thing bare. To cultivate as broad a landscape of potential revelation as possible, we venture from the center of familiarity and recognition to the edge of mystery and uncertainty. Just as there are edges to the stage space, there are edges to us performers too. I consider the edge that place where there's nothing to hide [...]
You've got to find some way of saying it, without saying it. - Duke Ellington In cabaret, I've experienced enormous freedom. I've lived moment-to-moment for an hour at a time, using anything that comes up in myself and offering that to my musicians and my audience. The result of my dipping into my own emotional palette is that others dip into [...]
I attended a screening of the new film, Nebraska, with my Canadian actor and pal Jean Brassard. What a truthful bit of film-making it is and what amazing casting! In the live chat with Bruce Dern that followed, he shared some of his wisdom: 1. Don't push. Don't perform. Don't show us anything. Let us find it. 2. Always [...]
What is it that's so powerful about the performers who can command the stage in stillness? I've felt their confidence and comfort in their bodies. I've felt the force of their imagination. In striving for this stage stillness and power in myself, I've watched them. And I've watched the video footage of my own concerts (yikes! - there is no more [...]
