Hailed by the New York press as "a powerful story-teller leaving the audience breathless," "dark, edgy, haunting," "smart and sexy," KAREN KOHLER is passionate about European and American Pop, and for most of her life has had one hi-heeled foot on this continent and one on the other. "My parents are Berliners," she says, "and when I uncovered the music of Weimar-era Berlin, it completely seized my imagination and instrument, and I was never the same after that!"
Born in Frankfurt as Karen Stammnitz, she is a direct descendant of 17th century court composers Johann and Karl Stamitz, who "wrote for strings and horns and sadly, not for voice." Her father, an airline executive, moved his family to New York when she was five, and her earliest singing experiences took place in a mostly black childrens' choir on Long Island. Classically trained in arias and Lieder, Karen dabbled in the Broadway repertoire and opera in college, completing her studies in political science and music at the University of Arizona.
"With her high forehead, magnified lips and dancing eyes," writes the Austin-American Statesman, "Kohler recalls the 1920s, 30s and 40s. She would seem destined to sing Weill. When she really melts into his twilight-of-love songs or bares her teeth for the grittier material, she is the equal of any cabaret singer alive." How she got to Texas is a story she'll happily tell you over a beer. For more than a decade she was glued to what she affectionately calls "the velvet trap of Austin," surrounded by blues, bluegrass, jazz and folk. She brings all of these influences to the table in her refined and spirited interpretations of the great American and European songbooks.
Karen was introduced as "an ambassador of German culture" the first time she sang at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. Her art is recognized as bridging distinctly different sensibilities, songbooks and cultures. With a rare combination of continental élan and New York sophistication, she takes us on a journey backward yet forward, re-interpreting the songs of Kurt Weill, Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf, Connee Boswell, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Jacques Brel and more.
Her first gig when she returned to New York in 2000 took place in a jazz parlor in Harlem, and you can still hear her there when she isn't performing in cabaret rooms and concert halls around the city, region and abroad. "In cabaret, I've found a home for all my women," she says with a smile, "and there are a few."
In 2003, Karen formed the Kabarett Kollektif, a group of New York-based European artists dedicated to preserving Europe's cabaret tradition and to furthering the art form as a whole. She balances her growing solo career alonsgide her work as artistic director, producer and performer in the group. A scholar of the history of cabaret, from its birth in France to modern times, Karen lectures on the history of cabaret and cabaret performance. Her company, Fin Alley Arts Management, is based in New York City.
She has just released her third album, "The Moons of Venus: Romancing Marlene Dietrich." Previous recordings are "Jam and Spice: The Songs of Kurt Weill" (2000) and "Das Kabarett - European and American Pop, 1920-49" (1999).
Check out the artist's website:
http://karenkohler.netTrack List:
1. Intro/Noel Coward Poem
2. Ich bin die fesche Lola
3. Welcome, Intro to Jonny
4. Jonny, wenn du Geburtstag hast
5. About The Blue Angel
6. Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuss (Falling in Love Again)
7. Quand l'amour meurt
8. About Morocco and Destry Rides Again
9. You've Got That Look/Little Joe, The Wrangler/ Boys in the Bac
10. If the moons of Venus could speak
11. One Touch of Venus
12. About One Touch of Venus and the Bacharach years
13. Makin' Whoopee
14. Honeysuckle Rose
15. You Go To My Head
16. Das Lied ist aus
17. About A Foreign Affair
18. The Ruins of Berlin/Black Market
19. Auf Wiedersehen
20. Lili Marlene
Other Genres:
