From: Brooklyn, New York. LA Opera: the Digital Short We Hold These Truths (2021).

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.

2017 marked her debut as a film score composer. Her score for Dee Rees’ Oscar-nominated Mudbound 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.

2019 was a hallmark year for her work as a composer. In addition to debuting her first symphonic commission, she scored four films, three of which were featured at the Sundance Film Festival 2020. They include Dee Ree’s The Last Thing He Wanted, Kitty Green’s The Assistant and Josephine Decker’s psychological drama Shirley; the latter's soundtrack was named The Guardian’s Contemporary Album of the Month in June 2020. The fourth film was the documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble.

2021 promises a range of projects from opera commissions and a new solo EP.

Learn more at Tamar-kali.com

Photo credit: Felix van Groeningen