Artists

Amy Beth Kirsten, composer

Amy Beth Kirsten has received awards and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, Fromm Foundation, The MAP Fund, ASCAP, and from the state of Connecticut. She is currently composing a chamber opera – without singers – for the 2012 Grammy-winning ensemble eighth blackbird. Before coming to the east coast to attend Peabody Conservatory, she was a singer-songwriter for ten years in the Chicago area and played at many of the cities smallest, but mightiest, nightclubs. Since then she has written music for orchestra, chamber ensemble, opera, and for solo instruments. Upcoming projects include a new work for Calyx Piano Trio, a solo cello piece commissioned by Jeffrey Zeigler of Kronos Quartet, and a song cycle for the duo TwoSense.

Raised in the midwest, Ms. Kirsten received degrees from Benedictine University, the Chicago College of Performing Arts, and from Peabody Conservatory. She teaches composition privately and at the HighSCORE festival in Pavia, Italy. She has previously taught music theory at Peabody Conservatory, Towson University, Wesleyan University, and music history at the University of Connecticut. Currently a freelance composer and librettist, she lives and works in New Haven, Connecticut. www.amybethkirsten.com