Karen Kohlerand theKabarett Kollektif

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When Karen Kohler moved her suc-cessful performing career fromAustin, Texas, to New York, her

debut show, Das Kabarett, immediately drewthe attention of our magazine. It was not onlyKaren’s Nordic good looks and lovelysoprano voice, but the featuring of Europeancabaret that we focused on in our review. Ina more recent show, Paris-Berlin Express,Karen reminded her audience that cabaretwas born in Paris and flourished in Germany.She has been striving to preserve that artistictradition here in the United States. Karen’sThe Moons of Venus: Romancing Marlene Diet-rich coincided with the centenary of Dietrich’sbirth (these days she performs it in Berlin),and Karen was one of the performers weinterviewed for our two-part Dietrich feature.In 2003, Karen’s musical background, herpersonal identity as a German who has livedmost of her life in America, and her love ofthe Great European Songbook culminated inher formation of the Kabarett Kollektif, agroup of nine performers who perform Euro-pean cabaret singly or together, sometimes

with additional guests. Since the Kollektif’sfirst appearance at The Duplex in 2003, ithas played to sold-out audiences at variousNew York cabaret venues.

Karen’s life and musical career can beviewed from three perspectives: her culturalbackground and early aspirations to becomean attaché at the German Embassy in Wash-ington, D.C.; her growing career as a singerand actress; and now her bi-continentalcabaret appearances in the United Statesand abroad. It is a combination of thesethree that led her to assemble the Kollektif.

If genes play a large part in the personswe become, Karen’s artistic talents can betraced back at least to the 1700s. She wasborn Karen Stammnitz, a descendant ofJohann Stamitz and his son Karl, court musi-cians and composers who were part of therenowned Mannheim school of musicians.Johann, Karen relates with pride, helped layout the design for what is now the modernsymphony orchestra, giving a larger role towoodwinds than they formerly had. The envi-ronmental influence came into play when

By Barbara Leavy

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Dietrich for myTexas audi-ences.”

One canimagine thatwhat shesang wasequally newto most Tex-ans; inanyevent,theresultwas

Karen’sfirst two CDs, DasKabarett and Jam and Spice:The Songs of Kurt Weill. But Texas washardly the environment in which to develop acabaret career, and Karen and her husbandBob Kohler moved to New York. Then, sherelates, during the Weill centenary in 2001 “Iwas invited to sing at the German Embassy inWashington. A diplomat greeted me upon myarrival. ‘Once upon a time,’ I told him, ‘I

wanted to have your job. I wanted to becomethe cultural attaché.’ That night I was intro-duced as an ambassador of German culture

for the very first time.” It was not, however,to be her last time, and

appearances at

theEmbassy

and Ger-man Con-

sulates arenow part of

Karen’s per-forming life. In

October2004—coinci-

dentally the datewhen the second

Kollektif seriesbegan—Karen offi-

cially became a U.S.citizen, able, neverthe-

less, to retain her Ger-man nationality.

There was yetanother surprise awaiting

Karen after she discoveredKurt Weill. In January

2001, Karen attended inBerlin the month-long festivi-

ties and symposiums to mark 100 Years ofGerman Cabaret and saw and heard for her-self “mostly political and satirical cabaret andvirtually no songs.” This was not an entire sur-prise since overseas bookers had already told

Karen was 5 years old and her father, aLufthansa airline executive, was transferred tothe United States. In her Amityville,Long Island, school, thestudy of music

tendedtodividealongraciallines. Mostwhite stu-dents studiedinstrumentsand mostblack studentssang. But Karenjoined the choir,where, shereports, “I learnedmy English togospel music, theJackson Five and BillWithers.” Perhaps gospelsinging also contributed tothe emotional intensity thatshe continues to bring to her singing.

Years later, living in Texas, Karen studiedclassical voice and theater, singing the role ofmany musical heroines, such as Laurie inOklahoma. She then experienced a trueepiphany when she heard a recording of Ute

LemperSings Kurt Weilland “found themusic utterly capti-vating, like nothingI had ever heardbefore.” Her bud-ding musicalcareer then dove-

tailed with earlieraspirations. Hopingeventually to find herplace in the GermanyEmbassy, Karen hadmajored in InternationalRelations at CW Post Col-lege, completing her studiesat the University of Arizona.How significant that she not

only discovered a new music she loved, butin her discovery found a passage back toher own cultural roots. Karen decided to“revive the old Berlin songs of Marlene

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Kohler

Opposite pageIn her Berlin debutSinging Jacques BrelThis pageProvocatively positioned withuber pianist LarryGreenawalt

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German songs, your voice is in your belly,and you are moody, mysterious and erotic.”Not that Karen would so simplistically dividethe subject matter of American and Europeansongs. She points as examples to Harburgs’Brother Can You Spare a Dime and FriedrichHollander’s Falling in Love Again to warnagainst over-generalizing. Still, if space permit-ted us, we could add Karen’s insights concern-ing American and European cabaret tocenturies of writing on the differences betweenAmerican and European artistic traditions.

The Kabarett Kollektif’s first series debutedin April 2003 with four solo shows by Germanperformers, including Karen herself. Therewere avant-garde jazz singer/composer TheoBleckman; multi-instrumentalist/singer GinaLeishman; and singer/actor/tap dancer DirkWeiler. Karen had sought artists who were“experienced, passionate interpreters of theEuropean cabaret arts,” who “found them-selves, however, living and performing outsidetheir homeland.” For the next year, Karen lis-tened to many European artists, seeking thosewho “are the genuine article,” who “are mov-ing, and who are nice and play well with oth-ers.” As she reminds us, “We are, after all, aKollektif.” She has added actor/director JeanBrassard; French jazz singer/pianist Fred-erique; French chanteuse Greta; singer/song-writer Micheline van Hautem; and

singer/accordionist Marni Rice. This is howKaren characterizes the Kollektif: “Nine artistsrepresenting six countries and dedicated topreserving the European cabaret traditionthrough live performance and educational out-reach.” To find biographies, click on the pho-tographs on www.kollektif.karenkohler.net oraccess their individual websites.

Because Karen believes that “cabaret is forthe Everyman,” one show each season involvesa “Pay What You Wish” night. The cover iswaived and a hat is passed, such nights oftenyielding more income than when a cover isrequired. In addition, the Kollektif allows newshows to develop that have a life of their own.After Greta joined the Kollektif, she collabo-rated with Karen on Berlin-Paris Express, whichhas been drawing its own attention and praiseand which will reprise this fall. Other soloshows by the Kollektif are scheduled and morecollaborations likely.

At the moment, Karen finds herself a busyperformer, shuttling back and forth betweenNew York and Europe. Her success in Berlinsuggests that she is more than a little responsi-ble for the resurgence there of cabaretsinging. But if asked to name her most impor-tant achievement, she will invoke her “great-est work of art,” her twenty-two yearpartnership with husband Robert Kohler. Hecan be met as a supporting presence atKollektif performances. The group hasbecome a significant feature of the New Yorkcabaret scene, for which its enthusiastic audi-ences will be continually grateful. m

Karen KohlerContinued from page 41

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her that the “chanson in Germany” waspassé. German cabaret performers were liv-ing—as she was—outside their homeland, insuch places as London, Amsterdam, andCanada. It was apparent to Karen “thatGerman chanson wasalmost entirelyorphaned.” Sev-eral motives weretherefore movingher toward whatwould become theKabarett Kollektif.One, again, wasKaren’s finding arich musical her-itage that in a verycomplex fashionwas intrinsic toher German self-identity. Second,she realizedthat as acabaret per-former,singingAmericanstandards(as she hasand still does)would largely find her “bringingcoals to Newcastle.” Third, a significant col-laboration with KT Sullivan had led to the cre-ation of their successful Weimar show. Itdebuted at the Neue Galerie, an art museumthat was seeking a cabaret series with a Ger-man theme and that was resolved “to make ahome for German cabaret in New York.”(Their show also had a successful run in Lon-don, where KT and Karen also performed aNoel Coward show.) Fourth, and finally,Karen says she came to realize how much “Iwanted more European cabaret in my life.”

In describing her career as bi-continental,Karen is totally positive about her two worlds.Here a contrast might be found between herand Karen Akers, for whom the River Seineand the Shenandoah River symbolize her tworesidences and the sometimes-ensuing conflictAkers faces in her career (see the May 2005

feature in Cabaret Scenes).Karen Akers may exemplifythe theory of the Irish poetWilliam Butler Yeats, whosaid that great art emergedfrom the artist’s quarrelwith himself—what Akersrefers to as “a dividedheart.” If such a truth alsoexists in Karen Kohler’sunconscious, she con-sciously focuses on its

positive outcome. Withgenuine

satisfac-tion shereportsthatrecently amember ofher Berlinaudience toldher, “Hearingyou sing thesesongs is differ-ent than hearinga Berliner dothem. You areGerman, and yetnot. You are Amer-

ican, and yet not. It’scompelling.” Anothertold her, “When yousing your Americansongs, your voice ishigh and you are light-hearted and funny.When you sing the

Karen KohlerContinued from page 37

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Top (L to R)Women of theKollektif: Greta,KT Sullivan (justvisiting), Karenand MichelineAbove (L to R)The Kollektif: JeanBrassard, DirkWeiler, KarenKohler, Michelinevan Hautem andMarni Rice

RobertKohler