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Gabriel Kahane

The Ambassador

Sony Masterworks

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Gabriel Kahane: 'Ambassador Hotel,' Live On Soundcheck - WNYC / New York
Gabriel Kahane: 'Griffith Park,' Live On Soundcheck - WNYC / New York
Gabriel Kahane: 'Veda,' Live On Soundcheck - WNYC / New York
Apartment Sessions - Empire Liquor Mart (9127 S. Figueroa St.) featuring Gabriel Kahane
Little Love (Official Video)
Gabriel Kahane: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
Gabriel Kahane - Performs
Gabriel Kahane - Music Conservatory or Not?
Live In Studio: Gabriel Kahane (Full Session)
1 Black Garden - 2673 Dundee Pl.
2 Bradbury - 304 Broadway
3 Slumlord Crocodile - 115 E. 3rd St.
4 Veda - 1 Pierce Dr.
5 Empire Liquor Mart - 9172 S. Figueroa St.
6 Musso and Frank - 6667 Hollywood Blvd
7 Villains - 4616 Dundee Dr.
8 Ambassador Hotel - 3400 Wilshire Blvd
9 Griffith Park - 2800 E. Observatory Ave
10 Union Station - 800 N. Alameda St.
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From Die Hard to the architecture of Richard Neutra and R.M. Schindler, from Blade Runner to the fiction of James M. Cain and Raymond Chandler, and from fires, riots, and earthquakes to the lives of so many Americans who have looked to Southern California as a panacea, Gabriel Kahane's The Ambassador (Masterworks)draws its inspiration from a multitude of sources to tell intimate, human stories against the backdrop of Los Angeles architecture and popular culture. The album is available everywhere on June 3, 2014.

Kahane was born in Los Angeles but raised on the East Coast and in Northern California. He writes, "Starting in my late teens I began to spend more time in LA. I found myself chasing its soul- its aspiration, its spirit, its sadness- and wanted to express that. I've always had a preoccupation with buildings, and the relationships we form with them. So for this album, I made a list of street addresses that were interesting to me, and then began to explore different narrative approaches for each one: on the title track, I sing from the perspective of a doorman at the now-demolished Ambassador Hotel; in another, I take on the persona of James M. Cain's iconic protagonist, Mildred Pierce. On ‘Empire Liquor Mart,' I sing from the perspective of Latasha Harlins, a fifteen-year-old African-American girl shot to death in 1991, one year before the LA Riots. It is my hope that in this array of voices, something new about Los Angeles is expressed."

The album was co-produced by Kahane and long-time collaborators Casey Foubert (Sufjan Stevens), Matt Johnson (St. Vincent), and Rob Moose (Bon Iver), each of whom appeared on Gabriel's previous LP, the critically acclaimed Where are the Arms. Additionally, The Ambassador features guest vocal appearances by Shara Worden, Aoife O'Donovan, and Holcombe Waller.

About Gabriel Kahane: As a songwriter, Kahane has released two albums, most recently the critically acclaimed Where are the Arms, hailed by The New York Times for its "extravagant poise and emotional intelligence." The Times also adds that "Kahane, it seems clear, will be one of the artists nudging musical theater in new directions in the 21st century." Case in point, in 2012 he made his recital debut at Carnegie's Zankel Hall in a program devoted to his music. That year also saw the New York premiere of February House at the Public Theater, for which Kahane wrote the much lauded score. As a composer of concert works, Kahane has been commissioned by, among others, Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Equally at home in concert hall and club settings, Gabriel has performed or recorded with artists ranging from Sufjan Stevens, Rufus Wainwright, Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau, to Jeremy Denk, John Adams, and Audra McDonald, who has made Kahane's Craiglistlieder a part of her repertoire. A fellow of the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo, Kahane makes his home in Brooklyn, NY.

  • Gabriel Kahane brings travel journey 'Book of Strangers' and inward 'Magnificent Bird' to Vancouver's Music on Main / stir
    Posted At: May 4, 2023 12:00 AM
    One of the songwriter’s works grew out of a 9,000-mile train trip through Middle America, the other through COVID introspectionstir's ALEXANDER VARTY writes…..Music on Main presents Gabriel Kahane’s Book of Strangers at the Annex on May 10 and Magnificent Bird at the same venue on May 11.DESPITE HIS PRESSING need to finish “a few more seconds” of the string quartet he’s currently writing for Brooklyn Rider,...
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  • Gabriel Kahane picks the brains of students ahead of his Orlando Philharmonic performance / Positively Osceola
    Posted At: January 21, 2020 12:00 AM

    Young gifted artists like the ones that fill the halls and classrooms of Osceola County School for the Arts can spend each school day learning and expanding their talents and passion for the arts. It's one thing to sing, or to be proficient in playing an instrument, or to compose music, but it's something entirely different to do it so well that your drive is about performing and sharing that gift with o...
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  • Gabriel Kahane set for 'Pivot Festival' / San Francisco Classical Voice Q&A
    Posted At: January 22, 2019 12:00 AM

    The results of the 2016 presidential election sent a shockwave through America. On the day after the election, singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane boarded an Amtrak train at Penn Station and embarked on a 13-day, 8,980-mile journey through America, seeking elucidation. Kahane hoped that by leaving the comfort and security of his East Coast, Brooklyn home, and traveling into the "heartland," he would encount...
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  • Gabriel Kahane wrote 'Book of Travelers' while riding a train across the US / PBS: NEWSHOUR
    Posted At: November 8, 2018 12:00 AM

    Around the presidential election of 2016, songwriter Gabriel Kahane decided to take a break from everyday life, escape technology and explore the country by rail. While traveling, he aspired to engage in conversation--but not argue--with strangers of all types of background. This is his brief but spectacular take on how conversations in train dining cars can lead to "radical empathy." Judy Woodruff: ...
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  • Gabriel Kahane offers a snapshot of America on KCRW's 'Morning Becomes Eclectic'
    Posted At: October 10, 2018 12:00 AM

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  • Gabriel Kahane is back in Portland with Oregon Symphony for live recording of 'emergency shelter intake form' / OPB
    Posted At: September 10, 2018 12:00 AM

    This week OPB talks with artists whose work - and sometimes even their mere existence - have caused a kind of social friction. You'll hear from prolific drummer Madame Gandhi, filmmaker and actor John Cameron Mitchell, musician Black Belt Eagle Scout and composer Gabriel Kahane. New York composer Gabriel Kahane was back in Portland for a live theater recording of his latest musical piece, "emergency ...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - Book of Travelers' offers a generous snapshot of America / San Francisco Chronicle
    Posted At: September 2, 2018 12:00 AM

    "Book of Travelers," the extraordinary new cycle from singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane, covers a lot of ground in a short space. The texts draw on conversations he had with fellow Amtrak passengers during a self-assigned fact-finding mission in the wake of the 2016 election; the music - unleashed in a two-tone baritone-falsetto combo, against the accompaniment of a soulfully creaky piano - is a vivid and...
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  • Gabriel Kahane's Book of Travelers offers glimmers into the American psyche / popMATTERS
    Posted At: September 1, 2018 12:00 AM

    Gabriel Kahane set off on a cross-country train journey on November 9, 2016, the day after Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote for President of the United States. The resultant work was first presented as 8980: Book of Travelers at the 2017 Brooklyn BAM Fest. Now, Nonesuch presents a condensed, studio-recorded version of the work, Book of Travelers. Kahane traveled 8,980 miles on connecting t...
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  • Gabriel Kahane's strangers on a train / NPR
    Posted At: August 29, 2018 12:00 AM

    Gabriel Kahane describes his latest album; Book of Travelers, (Nonsuch Records), as "a listening tour." He talked to about 70 or 80 people and turned the stories they told him into songs. Kahane says that some of the songs, like "What If I Told You," are almost verbatim conversations he was having during his travels. He talked with people for hours about love, economic privilege, race and more. The more ...
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  • Gabriel Kahane will make his OS debut as composer/performer, with world premiere of 'emergency shelter intake' / OregonLive
    Posted At: May 6, 2018 12:00 AM

    Eclectic singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane will make his Oregon Symphony debut as composer and performer with the world premiere of his piece "emergency shelter intake form," an orchestral and vocal work about homelessness. Kahane will take the stage with Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman, Portland vocalists Holcombe Waller and Holland Andrews and Portland's Maybelle Community Singers as par...
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  • The day after Donald Trump was elected, Gabriel Kahane went on a listening tour / New York Times
    Posted At: December 2, 2017 12:00 AM

    The day after Donald Trump was elected, the songwriter Gabriel Kahane decided to go on a listening tour: crisscrossing America by train and talking to as many people as he could. Leaving his cellphone and the internet behind, he spent two weeks and nearly 9,000 miles on Amtrak, collecting conversations and stories for what would become "8980: Book of Travelers," a song cycle and solo concert - Mr. Kahane...
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  • Gabriel Kahane's 8,980 miles on the train / The Economist
    Posted At: November 30, 2017 12:00 AM

    PLANES are practical, buses are cheap and cars grant freedom. But trains are for romance. A century after America's railway heyday, the country's ageing trains still enjoy an anachronistic glamour. Few people are immune to the charms of a sluggish, traffic-free chug across states, with the countryside unfurling panoramically. At a dark or uncertain time for the country, a long rail journey from one coast...
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  • Gabriel Kahane sings about his Amtrak exile and the body politic in BAM run / New York Times
    Posted At: November 28, 2017 12:00 AM

    On Nov. 9, 2016, I boarded the Lake Shore Limited, Amtrak's overnight service from New York to Chicago. I had with me a small suitcase stuffed with a week's worth of clothes, half a dozen books, a bright blue Casio wristwatch, and a cheap digital camera I'd picked up at Best Buy on my way to Penn Station. My phone remained at home. Over the next 13 days, I would log 8,980 miles aboard six...
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  • CMF is a sweet six-week summer stint in the foothills of Boulder / Westword
    Posted At: July 5, 2016 12:00 AM

    The violinists are fiddling around. They're staggered among the darkened rows of wooden seats in Boulder's 117-year-old, barn-like Chautauqua Auditorium, standing apart from each other in little pools of concentration, tuning their instruments. On stage, the brass and woodwind players and percussionists are tweeting, honking and booming. At 10 a.m., it's already hot inside this unventilated, all-wood...
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  • Gabriel Kahane with Brooklyn Rider@Celebrity Series / Boston Classical Review
    Posted At: February 8, 2016 12:00 AM

    One ensemble and one soloist that stand at the vanguard of genre-bending styles are  Brooklyn Rider  and Gabriel Kahane. Both made strong impressions in Boston last year when they performed as part of the Celebrity Series Stave Sessions. Friday night at Sanders Theatre, they came together for a concert influenced by rock, pop, world music, and a little Schubert. Schubert's example set t...
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  • Brooklyn Rider joins Gabriel Kahane for - The Fiction Issue / New York Times review
    Posted At: February 4, 2016 12:00 AM

    Gabriel Kahane poses a timeless rhetorical question in "The Fiction Issue," his finely wrought new album: "What's a day without a doughnut?" He's singing in the guise of someone headed out for coffee, bathed in bright morning light. But the darkening shivers of his arrangement for string quartet, played by Brooklyn Rider, set up an emotional pivot: He's still numb from a wrenching loss, and his daily rou...
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  • Gabriel Kahane and Brooklyn Rider play Stanford
    Posted At: January 27, 2016 12:00 AM

    Gabriel Kahane is not an artist easily pinned down to a certain genre of music, labeled as a lyricist, or pigeonholed as a pianist. He strives for songwriting that's lyrically poignant and melodically complicated, yet delicate and accessible enough for even the most mainstream-pop-attuned ears to enjoy and understand. "I think music is just a way of me filtering my experience of the world and spi...
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  • Brooklyn Rider & Gabriel Kahane join forces for Boston's 2016 Celebrity Series / WBUR - The Artery
    Posted At: April 23, 2015 12:00 AM

    Two Crossover Media Artists - String quartet Brooklyn Rider and singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane will perform pieces from Brooklyn Rider's latest album, "Almanac," and Kahane's "The Ambassador" and "Bradbury Studies" for Boston's Celebrity Series on Feb. 5, 2016, 8 p.m. at Sanders Theatre. No strangers to each other, they performed "Come On All You Ghosts," a three-part song cycle feat...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador makes WBUR: Boston '10 Favorite Albums From 2014'
    Posted At: January 7, 2015 12:00 AM

    The liner notes to Gabriel Kahane's concept album "The Ambassador" (penned by LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne) are detailed and evocative, just like the music they describe. Kahane, whose background is in classical composition, wrote each song on "The Ambassador" about a different intersection in Los Angeles, using location as an inroad to the city's mythologies. "Bradbury" reimagines ...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / Classical: KING 'Second Inversion' review
    Posted At: July 14, 2014 12:00 AM

    What springs to mind when you think of Los Angeles? Most will immediately think of sun, surf, and superficiality. The city of nearly 4 million falls victim to a heck of a lot of stereotypes considering its size and diversity. But we native Californians (even Northerners who are, ahem, not always fond of our neighbors to the South) know LA is a lot more complicated than the rest of...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / Huffington Post review
    Posted At: July 10, 2014 12:00 AM

    Gabriel Kahane's triumphant new album The Ambassador (Sony Masterworks) is a song cycle that casts a loving eye on Los Angeles architecture by naming each of the 12 tracks after a specific LA location, such as classic Hollywood eatery/drinkery Musso and Frank's; 304 Broadway, where parts of Blade Runner were filmed; and Union Station. The record's centerpiece, "Empire Liquor Mart (9172 S....
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  • Staged Version of Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador Travels the U.S. / Broadwayworld.com
    Posted At: July 10, 2014 12:00 AM

    Gabriel Kahane's critically acclaimed new album The Ambassador draws its inspiration from a multitude of sources to tell intimate, human stories against the backdrop of Los Angeles architecture and popular culture. Released on June 3 via Sony Music Masterworks, The Ambassador is a collection of ten songs for ten buildings in Los Angeles. A fully staged version of The Ambassador starring Kahane, direc...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / Jewcy interview
    Posted At: July 10, 2014 12:00 AM

    Who says you have to be a high school graduate to go to Brown University? Well, in most cases you do, but Gabriel Kahane is an exception. The 33-year-old "indie-classical" musician and composer goes beyond musical genres in every way possible, particularly on his new album, The Ambassador. L.A.-born, New York bred Kahane recently found himself back in his birth-state, enraptured by the architecture a...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / WAMC: Albany, NY interview
    Posted At: July 1, 2014 12:00 AM

    Gabriel Kahane is a composer/musician/singer/songwriter who divides his time between the club and the concert hall. He has been commissioned by, among others, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. His musical, February House was produced by The Public in New York City. His latest album, The Ambassador, is a meditatio...
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  • Gabriel Kahane gives touring a new meaning / Yahoo Music review
    Posted At: June 16, 2014 12:00 AM

    One of the year's very best albums has arrived in a comparatively low-key, unheralded manner-as often happens-and this is something you really shouldn't miss. The Ambassador, the latest work by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Kahane, aims to tell the story of Los Angeles. With a diverse array of songs bearing addresses in their titles, such as "Musso and Frank (6667 Hollywood Blvd...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / The Boston Globe review
    Posted At: June 10, 2014 12:00 AM

    Singer-composer Gabriel Kahane becomes the latest in a long list of artists who've tried to gauge the emotional temperature of Los Angeles with this era- and genre-hopping song cycle, The Ambassador, which explores the psyches of a cross section of characters. Each song is designated with a particular street address, adding perspective to the voices and world-weary insights - call it more songs about bui...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / The New York Times review
    Posted At: June 6, 2014 12:00 AM

    A sense of place provides more than a casual significance on The Ambassador (Sony Masterworks), an affecting new concept album by Gabriel Kahane. Inspired by the topography of Los Angeles, it's a collection of songs that draw meaning from specific points on the map, some enshrined in popular culture (the Bradbury Building, Musso & Frank Grill) and others known for darker reasons: "Empire Liquor M...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / Mother Jones review
    Posted At: June 2, 2014 12:00 AM

    Gabriel Kahane grew up in a world of classical music. His father, Jeffrey Kahane, is a concert pianist and director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. With his new album, The Ambassador, this week, Kahane takes a big leap in his transition from classical polymath to pop songwriter and rock musician. He hasn't given up any of the complexity of his music; several songs are intricate contraptions...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / NPR Morning Edition interview
    Posted At: May 30, 2014 12:00 AM

    Though NYC-based Gabriel Kahane wasn't raised there, The Ambassador feels like a musical tour of Los Angeles. The album makes 10 stops in the city where the composer and singer-songwriter was born and only came to appreciate later in life, each with a specific address used as the song title. There's the imaginary post-apocalyptic picnic at "Griffith Park (1800 E. Observatory Ave.)," where, Ka...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / Vogue exclusive first listen
    Posted At: May 30, 2014 12:00 AM

    Composer and singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane is preoccupied with place. In 2012, Kahane brought to the Public Theater February House, a musical inspired by the 1940s Brooklyn home where artists Carson McCullers, W.H. Auden, and Benjamin Britten lived communally. And last year, with Gabriel's Guide to the 48 States, a playful take on 1930s travel guides that premiered at Carnegie Hall, he interpreted the...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / Wall Street Journal review
    Posted At: May 29, 2014 12:00 AM

    Gabriel Kahane, like many New Yorkers, held a certain disdain for the puffy glamour of Los Angeles. Growing up, he saw the California city as "this den of the superficial," says the musician. As he began spending more time in L.A. as an adult, "I became more and more aware of everything about the city that is not perceived by outsiders." This reconsideration fueled his new album, The Ambassador. With...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / Paste Magazine video premiere
    Posted At: May 28, 2014 12:00 AM

    Singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane isn't short on talented collaborators in his latest album The Ambassador: the work features contributions from Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), composer and violinist Caroline Shaw and vocalist Aoife O'Donovan. But Kahane shines on his own, from the layered instrumentals to the heartfelt vocals. The album is set for release on June 3, and in anticipation for the relea...
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  • Gabriel Kahane - The Ambassador / NPR 'First Listen'
    Posted At: May 25, 2014 12:00 AM

    Composer and singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane says that the inspiration for his new album, The Ambassador, is 10 buildings in Los Angeles - appropriate, given what a gifted musical architect he is. The Ambassador is structured as a set of 10 vignettes, each a meditation on life in the City of Angels (as well as its many demons). The narrative of each song is located at a particular L.A. street addres...
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  • Gabriel Kahane: A Timeless Vision Of Los Angeles / WNYC: Soundcheck
    Posted At: May 9, 2014 12:00 AM

    Countless musicians have concocted concept albums built around all sorts of subjects, places and artistic influences. But far fewer concept albums can double as tour guide. Enter Gabriel Kahane, the prolific songwriter and composer whose latest work, The Ambassador, draws inspiration from the architecture and culture of Los Angeles. While Kahane was raised on the East Coast and in Northern California, he...
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