Brooklyn born and bred artist Tamar-kali is a second-generation musician with roots in the coastal Sea Islands of South Carolina.

As a composer, Tamar-kali has defied boundaries to craft her own unique alternative sound.

As a performer, Tamar-kali speaks her lyrical truth with a supreme passion and a voice that will shake your foundation and shatter your expectations with its soulful intensity.

The pieces she composes and arranges for her string sextet and voice project: Psychochamber Ensemble, marries the classical music of her Catholic upbringing with post-punk sensibilities.

2017 marked her debut as a film score composer with Dee Rees’ Oscar-nominated “Mudbound”.

Her ‘expressive and varied score’ [Variety] garnered her the World Soundtrack Academy’s 2018 Discovery of the Year Award and has been classified by Indiewire as one of the 25 Best Film Scores of the 21st Century.

The soundtrack for her score to Josephine Decker’s psychological drama ‘SHIRLEY’ was named The Guardian’s Contemporary Album of the month in June 2020.

2022 saw her debut work from multiple commissions; the LA Opera digital short, We Hold These Truths’ directed by Peabody award winner dream hampton, a solo cello piece ‘Little Bear Awakens’ for acclaimed cellist Matt Haimovitz’ Primavera Project alongside composers Josqin des Prez and Philip Glass as well as a return to the stage to perform ‘Melancholy Ghosts and Other Mothers’ a Beth Morrison Projects commissioned song cycle.

Freedom is a Constant Struggle, a concert curated and co-produced by the artist and presented by Lincoln Center featured Sea Island Symphony: Red Rice, Cotton and Indigo; an orchestral love letter to her Gullah Geechee roots as part of 2023’s Summer for the City Outdoor Festival.

Watch Night, a theatrical work conceived and directed by Bill T. Jones and composed by Tamar-kali with a libretto by Marc Bamuthi Joseph made its world premiere November 8, 2023 as part of the long awaited Perelman Performing Arts Center’s inaugural season.

Tamar-kali’s 2024 artistic landscape includes the scores and soundtracks for John Ridley’s Shirley Chisholm biopic starring Regina King and history making Oscar nominee Rachel Morrison’s feature directorial debut Flint Strong as well as a live excerpt of her latest opera work The Swann presented in concert form as part of Harlem Stage’s 40th Anniversary season.

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