In celebration of the Playwrights Horizons production of Gabriel Kahane’s Magnificent Bird / Book of Travelers, which opened yesterday, Nonesuch releases a recording of his song “Give Us the Ballot” today. Kahane wrote the song in October 2020, during the final month of a year spent off the internet, at the height of the pandemic. “‘Give Us the Ballot’ was written in October 2020, among the same batch of tunes that led to the album Magnificent Bird,” Kahane says. “With another election on the horizon, I thought this was the best moment to release a song that describes my relationship to voting, at a time when it is easy to become cynical about our sclerotic political landscape.”

Ahead of the Playwrights Horizons production of Gabriel Kahane’s Magnificent Bird / Book of Travelers comes a new recording of "Red Letter Days," out now. Kahane wrote the song in October 2020, during the final month of a year spent off the internet, at the height of the pandemic. The previously unreleased track, along with others from his October 2020 song-a-day project, will be performed by Kahane as part of the NYC theater’s staged presentation of music from the Nonesuch albums Magnificent Bird and Book of Travelers September 24–October 6, 2024.

The 92nd Street Y in New York City (92NY) has announced its 2024–25 Tisch Music Season, including performances by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, Jeremy Denk, Julia Bullock, Richard Goode, Brad Mehldau, Gabriel Kahane, and Days of Wine and Roses star Kelli O'Hara.

"American composer, singer, songwriter, and sonic storyteller Gabriel Kahane uses a vast tapestry of musical styles to craft captivating works that illustrate and elevate the human experience," MET Opera Principal Trumpet and Speaking Soundly host David Krauss says of his guest. They discuss Kahane's life and music, including his latest album, 2022's Magnificent Bird. You can hear their conversation here. Gabriel Kahane kicks off a US tour with Council, his new duo with Pekka Kuusisto, in San Francisco on Friday, with stops in Oregon, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and New York City; they head to Australia in August.

The Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA (CAP UCLA) has announced its 2023–24 season, including Gabriel Kahane & Attacca Quartet performing from his album Magnificent Bird in the new UCLA Nimoy Theater on October 22 and Kronos Quartet celebrating its fiftieth anniversary season in Royce Hall on April 28, as well as several other artists who can be hear on Nonesuch recordings.

Carnegie Hall has announced its 2023–24 concert season, and among the performers taking the esteemed hall's stages are Timo Andres, Julia Bullock, Gabriel Kahane, Kronos Quartet (joined by Laurie Anderson, Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion, and others), Brad Mehldau, and Chris Thile.

Gabriel Kahane, who heads to Europe and the UK this month for a London Jazz Festival set at the Southbank Centre and two nights in Copenhagen with the Danish String Quartet, has just announced a return to the Continent next March. The tour begins at the Philharmonie de Luxembourg on March 2, followed by a night at the Elbphilhrmonie in Hamburg and shows in Cologne, Lyon, Paris, Cenon, and Chateauroux. 

Gabriel Kahane, currently on tour, is the guest on the latest episode of the podcast Beginnings with Andy Beckerman following the recent release of his new album, Magnificent Bird. “It’s wonderful,” Beckerman says. “I listen to it over and over.” You can hear the wide-ranging conversation here.

Gabriel Kahane is on a special episode of New Sounds' Soundcheck, recorded live at WNYC's The Greene Space, in which he spoke with host John Schaefer about his two Nonesuch albums—Magnificent Bird, released last month, and his 2018 album, Book of Travelers—and performed several songs from both with a string quartet. You can listen to the episode and watch his performance here.

Composer/singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane's new album, Magnificent Bird, is out now. On the album, Kahane chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet, reveling in the tension between quiet, domestic concerns, and the roiling chaos of a nation and planet in crisis. "Deft, prose poem-like songs: an illuminating humanity is absolutely key," says Mojo. "A most eloquent exploration of our current lot." The San Francisco Chronicle calls it "a gorgeous, intimate collection ... glistening and magical." Guest musicians include Sam Amidon, Punch Brothers' Chris Thile and Paul Kowert, Caroline Shaw, and Mountain Man's Amelia Meath. Gabriel Kahane tours the US starting next Monday.

On his new album, Magnificent Bird, composer/singer/songwriter Gabriel Kahane chronicles the final month of a year spent off the internet. The album features more than a dozen collaborators, every one of whom, he says, "I love as a person as much as I do as a musician." Here, he shares the story of how those relationships began.

Gabriel Kahane has released "To Be American," from his upcoming album, Magnificent Bird. Kahane both mines and interrogates nostalgia in the song, which he wrote during the roiling, national tumult of October 2020. "It's fitting,” he says, “that a song preoccupied with the past would feature musicians who are some of my oldest friends. This song, as much as any on the album, is a showcase of my musical community." The elegiac anthem features an all-star band of Andrew Bird, Caroline Shaw, Chris Thile, Punch Brothers bassist Paul Kowert, and percussionist Ted Poor. You can watch the video for the song, directed by Robert Edridge-Waks, here.