about
classical singer. improviser. teacher. co-creator. song maker.

Tara Khozein is a soprano who makes and sings concert music and music-theater. She was born in Ecuador to a mixed Iranian-American family, was raised in New Mexico, and has lived, studied, and worked across the US and Europe. As a multidisciplinary performer, she explores the intersections of classical singing, extended techniques*, and physical theatre. She is also a voice teacher, a music director for theater, and a performance director for musicians.

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Tara holds an artist diploma in physical theatre from The Jacques Lecoq School in Paris, a B.M. in classical vocal performance from New Mexico State University. After her formal education, she lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she directed circus, immersive, operetta, and children's performances, and established an improvisation practice. While in Santa Fe, she became a company member of Theater Grottesco, and was on the original sound design and creation team for Meow Wolf's House of Eternal Return, where she later served as the primary content director for immersive performance. She moved to Budapest at the end of 2019, and established an online voice studio during Covid, where she continues to teach students from around the world.

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Her recent creative projects include two world premieres of Czech composer Ondřej Adámek: INES (2024) at Opera Köln, and CONNECTION IMPOSSIBLE (2024) with Ensemble Modern at the Bregenz Festival; physical and vocal performances in ONCE WITHIN A TIME (2022), a film by Godfrey Reggio with music by Philip Glass; the central role in Samu Gryllus's interactive opera, GEISELOPER (2023); her one-woman show IN TO OUT (2023-); and Kate Soper's one-woman chamber opera IPSA DIXIT with Chatter ABQ.

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She is a member of Kat and the Devil, The Tara and Rhonda Show, JazzaJ's Budapest Improvisors Orchestra, Timo Kinnunen's International Experimental Orchestra, and was the interim artistic director of Budapest's Soharóza Experimental Choir in their 2023-24 season. She also performs regularly in Budapest's underground music scene as a free improviser alongside classical, jazz, noise, and electronic musicians.

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Tara released her first duo improvisation tape in 2021 with contrabass player Carlos Santistevan of Santa Fe, NM. Her second duo improvisation album with multi-instrumentalist Etienne Rolin was released in Spring of 2022, her third with vocalist and electronic music creator Thea Soti was released in April of 2024, and her fourth with saxophonist Rhonda Taylor, will be released sometime soon.
 

Tara's heart resides in the high deserts of northern New Mexico. The rest of her is based in Budapest, Hungary and New York, NY.

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*extended vocal techniques are ways of vocalizing that are not traditionally used in classical music descending from the European tradition, but can be found in other traditions around the world