Amy Beth Kirsten

Amy Beth Kirsten moved from the Midwest to the East Coast in 2004 to attend Peabody Conservatory. In the preceding ten years, she was a singer-songwriter in Chicago and played at many of the city’s nightclubs. Since then Kirsten has written music for orchestra, chamber ensemble, opera, and for solo instruments. Color, memory, voice, words, and breath are fascinations that are intrinsic to her musical language. Her work Strange Angel was part of ACO’s Underwood New Music Readings in 2007. She has received awards and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, Fromm Foundation, The MAP Fund, ASCAP, and from the state of Connecticut. In addition to the world premiere of strange pilgrims, her piece for ACO, the 2013-14 season includes premieres by eighth blackbird, Calyx Piano Trio, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, and a song cycle for the duo TwoSense. Kirsten lives and works in New Haven, CT. She teaches privately and at the HighSCORE Festival in Pavia, Italy. For more information visit www.amybethkirsten.com

strange pilgrims
Of strange pilgrims which incorporates video by Mark DeChiazza, she says, “strange pilgrims is a meditation on the process of discovery and its relationship to the spirit. The title of the piece comes from Gabriel García Márquez’s collection of the same name, which explores themes of otherness and isolation. In the solitude of creating music, comes the knowledge that a composer’s dream can only be realized with the dedication of the remarkable ‘others’ who give the vision life.”