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Tanya Kalmanovitch

Born in Fort McMurray, Alberta, violist and violinist Tanya Kalmanovitch now lives in the spaces between modern jazz, classical music and free improvisation. Actively performing in New York City since 2004, she has been named “Best New Talent” by All About Jazz New York, while Time Out New York identified her from a small pool of suspects as “the Juilliard-trained violist who’s been tearing up the scene”.

Tanya’s debut recording with her quartet Hut Five was hailed by the Montreal Gazette as “an exceptional recording, one of the more engaging recordings heard in some time” and was garnished with a number of stars by DownBeat magazine. Her latest recording, Heart Mountain, with pianist Myra Melford, will be released in May 2007.

Tanya has performed in Europe and North America with a diverse range of artists including Mark Turner, Benoît Delbecq, Mark Helias, Dominique Pifarély, Andy Laster, Tom Rainey, Ernst Reijseger, Mat Maneri, and the Turtle Island String Quartet, Martin Hayes, John Cage and Shujaat Husain Khan. She has travelled frequently to India where she has studied Karnatic music with violinist Lalgudi G. J. R. Krishnan and veena player Karaikudi S. Subramanian while conducting doctoral dissertation research on jazz exotica.

Tanya teaches regularly at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London UK and the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag NL, and is a member of the faculty of the department of Creative Improvisation at Boston’s New England Conservatory. She frequently presents workshops on improvisation for string players, classical musicians, jazz musicians, and musicians in general in the Netherlands, Ireland, the United States, and the Czech Republic.

She is a founding member of the Brooklyn Jazz Underground, a collective of ten independent bandleaders based in New York City. She is also the Canadian representative to the International Association of Schools of Jazz, a founding member of the Jazz String Caucus of the International Association for Jazz Education, and a mentor to the Sisters in Jazz Program.

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8
Album Review

Maneri / Kalmanovitch / Jacobson / Osgood: Variations On No Particular Theme - Part 1

Read "Variations On No Particular Theme - Part 1" reviewed by Mark Corroto


This free improvisation chamber quartet is an interesting study in bold, yet even-tempered music making. Tomo Jacobson, the Polish-born bassist now making Copenhagen his home, assembled this Europe-meets-North American cast for what appears to be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Jacobson is joined by Danish drummer Kresten Osgood and two violists, the Canadian Tanya Kalmanovitch and American Mat Maneri. Jacobson and Osgood are members of the septet Moonbow, and the drummer released Tzokth Songs (Isula Jazz, 2016) along with ...

153
Album Review

Tanya Kalmanovitch, Myra Melford: Heart Mountain

Read "Heart Mountain" reviewed by Suzanne Lorge


It's getting harder and harder these days to categorize jazz musicians, as Tanya Kalmanovitch and Myra Melford remind us with their new release, Heart Mountain (Perspicacity Records). Both carry heavy credentials in other genres of music: violinist/violist Kalmanovitch holds a bachelors degree from Juilliard, and classically trained pianist Melford traveled to Calcutta on a Fulbright scholarship to study the harmonium. In their work they urge listeners to dispense with such categorization, however, and find “the spaces between musical genres, where ...

182
Album Review

Myra Melford / Tanya Kalmanovitch: Heart Mountain

Read "Heart Mountain" reviewed by Troy Collins


Heart Mountain is the first duo recording of pianist Myra Melford and violist/violinist Tanya Kalmanovitch. Ajay Heble, artistic director of the 2003 Guelph International Jazz Festival, suggested a duet with Melford when unforeseen circumstances prevented the scheduled performance of Kalmanovitch's quartet. So successful was their unplanned meeting that they decided to reconvene for this 2005 studio effort.

Traveling similar artistic paths, Melford and Kalmanovitch share common interests and academic backgrounds. Melford, one of today's most original pianists and ...

191
Album Review

Tanya Kalmanovitch Hut Five: Out Where the Trains Don't Run

Read "Out Where the Trains Don't Run" reviewed by AAJ Staff


How ridiculous that with the deep pool of talented jazz violinists, many best-of lists lump them into the nonspecific “Best String Player category? With Leroy Jenkins, Billy Bang, Mark Feldman, Jenny Scheinman, Carla Kihlstedt, Regina Carter, and most recently Tanya Kalmanovitch (selected as an AAJ-NY “Best New Talent of 2004) -- it would be a challenge to roll off more names of soprano saxophonists (which has long had its own “category )! The Canadian Kalmanovitch recently made the ...

154
Album Review

Tanya Kalmanovitch: Winterland

Read "Winterland" reviewed by John Sharpe


Winterland is a gem -- a sophisticated, understated blend of classical music, jazz and pop. Classically trained violinist/violist/vocalist Tanya Kalmanovitch keeps things nice and mellow throughout this unique 10-track collection. Acoustic bassist John Hyde and guitarist Russell Broom round out Tanya’s trio and provide sympathetic, minimalist accompaniment. Not only is Tanya a fine musician, she’s a witty, intelligent composer as well. Her Love Is Just A Word and Temperance Street are both hauntingly poetic. The trio also performs a jaunty ...

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149

Event

Benoit Delbecq / Tanya Kalmanovitch duo performance (Sun.9/25) in New York!

Benoit Delbecq / Tanya Kalmanovitch duo performance (Sun.9/25) in New York!

Source: All About Jazz

"Sundays at 5“ PRESENTS ... BENOÎT DELBECQ (piano, prepared piano) TANYA KALMANOVITCH (violist/violinist) September 25th at 5pm at Hudson View Gardens “Lounge" 116 Pinehurst Avenue, Washington Heights $12 French Canadian pianist/composer BENOÎT DELBECQ and Canadian, now New York-based violist/violinist TANYA KALMANOVITCH will perform new music and improvisation for this very special concert and musical meeting of strings.

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Performance / Tour

New York Debut For Jazz Violist Tanya Kalmanovitch at Cornelia Street Cafe, March 2 @ 8:30 PM

New York Debut For Jazz Violist Tanya Kalmanovitch at Cornelia Street Cafe, March 2 @ 8:30 PM

Source: All About Jazz

Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street Greenwich Village, NY 10014 Tel: 212-989-9319 Fax: 212-243-4207 Web: corneliastreetcafe.com “a culinary as well as a cultural landmark" Mayoral Proclamation, City of New York 1987 NEW YORK DEBUT FOR JAZZ VIOLIST TANYA KALMANOVITCH Juilliard-trained violist and violinist performs acoustic and electric sets at Cornelia Street Café, March 2 @ 8:30 PM Named 2004's “Best New Talent" by All About Jazz New York, violist & violinist Tanya Kalmanovitch makes her New York debut as a ...

101

Performance / Tour

New York Debut For Jazz Violist Tanya Kalmanovitch at Cornelia Street Café, March 2 @ 8:30 PM

New York Debut For Jazz Violist Tanya Kalmanovitch at Cornelia Street Café, March 2 @ 8:30 PM

Source: All About Jazz

Cornelia Street Cafe 29 Cornelia Street Greenwich Village, NY 10014 Tel: 212-989-9319 Fax: 212-243-4207 Web: corneliastreetcafe.com “a culinary as well as a cultural landmark" Mayoral Proclamation, City of New York 1987 NEW YORK DEBUT FOR JAZZ VIOLIST TANYA KALMANOVITCH Juilliard-trained violist and violinist performs acoustic and electric sets at Cornelia Street Café, March 2 @ 8:30 PM Named 2004's “Best New Talent" by All About Jazz New York, violist & violinist Tanya Kalmanovitch makes her New York debut as a ...

Primary Instrument

Viola

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

Tanya Kalmanovitch is Assistant Chair of the department of Creative Improvisation at New England Conservatory in Boston MA and a regular instructor at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag NL and the summer school of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London UK, where she has pioneered creative improvisation programs for classical musicians. Central to her teaching philosophy is a belief that all musicians, regardless of genre, should possess the means to creative self- expression and professional development. Tanya has played a leading role in developing improvisational pedagogy for string players and creative musicians

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Variations On No...

Gotta Let It Out
2021

buy

Heart Mountain

Perspicacity Records
2007

buy

Out Where the Trains...

Perspicacity Records
2005

buy

Hut Five

Self Produced
2003

buy

Winterland

Stump Records
2000

buy

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