On May 7, 2015, Karen debuted Suitcase in Berlin: Songs of Brecht and the Poet Troubadours at the Irondale Center in her hometown of Brooklyn, NY. In the program she wove together the story song composers she loves most including Jaques Brel, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Noel Coward.
A few days later she was featured with a mini-set she called Gloomy Sunday at the Lower East Side Arts Festival.
On October 14, 2015 at the New York Cabaret Convention, Karen performed a re-imagined bi-lingual version of Lili Marleen in which she included a newly discovered German verse by the original composer which she translated into English. With accompaniment by Sean Harkness on guitar, the song brought down the house.
Alix Cohen had this to say in BroadwayWorld.com.
Closing Act One, Karen Kohler’s signature “Lili Marlene”, sung in English and German, has never sounded so completely a moving anti-war cri de coeur – passionate appeal, complaint, or protest.
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