TAGI Ensemble
TAGI – the clarinet, violin, cello, piano quartet – has burst onto the chamber music scene with a debut performance at the Lukas Foss’ Hamptons Summer Music Festival with an attention-demanding performance that was praised by critics as “spellbinding as a Faust-like tale, producing a stunning effect.”
Members of TAGI – clarinetist Igor Begelman, violinist Grigory Kalinovsky, cellist Sophie Shao and pianist Tatiana Goncharova – have brought audiences to their feet at the most prestigious venues around the world, including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Kravis Center in Florida, the Miyazaki Festival, the Suntory and Casals Halls in Japan, LG Arts Center in South Korea, the National Hall in Taiwan, and on stages of leading festivals such as Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart, the Great Composers Festival in Canada, the Singapore Sun Festival, Marlboro, Ravinia, Tanglewood and Caramoor.
With their innovative programs, members of TAGI have toured throughout North and South America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Israel and Russia. Numerous media outlets including NPR, PBS, Radio France, Japanese Public Networks, Israel National Television, and New York’s WQXR have featured the group and its members. Highlights of the past season include performances at the Asheville Chamber Music Series, the Universities of Western and South Carolina, Bentley College, the Emelin Theater, the Howland Chamber Music Circle, Big Arts in Florida, the Casals Festival, the Moab Music Festival, the Distinguished Artists Series at New York’s 92 Y, Juneau Jazz and Classics, Bridgehampton, Saratoga, Vail, and the Newport Festivals, among others. Collectively and individually, members of TAGI have collaborated with Pinchas Zukerman, Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, Christof Eschenbach, Ralph Kirshbaum, Carter Brey, David Shifrin, Jaime Laredo, Andre Previn, Eugene Istomin, Cho-Liang Lin, Andre-Michel Schub, Paquito D'Rivera, Andras Schiff, Fred Sherry, Ani Kavafian, Claude Frank, Andre Watts, Martha Argerich, and Richard Goode.
TAGI excels in the classical chamber repertoire but is also dedicated to promoting the music of our time, including premiering and performing works by Peter Schickele, Lera Auerbach, Meyer Kupferman, Elliot Schwartz, David Winkler and Alexander Krasotov. The all-Shostakovich recording released in 2002 on Centaur Records garnered wide critical acclaim, having been noted by the International Record Review for its “emotional intensity” and “overwhelming mastery.”
TAGI’s artists are passionate about bringing classical music to a wider audience, developing numerous outreach programs for the young and old, and performing in less traditional settings alongside their appearances at the world’s most respected venues. In order to further enrich the concert experience, TAGI’s extensively varied performance repertoire runs the range from classical style to contemporary music, of which they are particularly strong advocates, understanding the need to move forward. Their unique instrumentation provides the opportunity to further enrich their program by presenting quartets, trios, duos and the occasional solo, inspired by the rich, varied and sometimes rare repertoire for their instrument combination.
Equally rare is their exceptional individual talent. All laureates of prestigious international awards, such as the Avery Fisher Career Award, and individual winners of the Tchaikovsky, Rostropovich, Carl Nielsen, Geneva and Bellini International Competitions, they have been acknowledged as respected contributors to the world’s classical stage in their separate fields outside of the ensemble. Individually, the artists of TAGI studied at the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute, Yale College, the Manhattan School of Music and the Moscow State Conservatory.
TAGI members reside in New York City and hold teaching positions at the Manhattan School of Music, Bard College Conservatory of Music, Princeton University, North Carolina School of the Arts, the Pinchas Zukerman Young Artists Program in Canada, Sarah Lawrence College and the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine.
TAGI is represented by Isabella Puccini at Isabella Puccini Artist Management, llc
tel. +1 917 991 6287 - www.isabellapuccini.com
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