Kristin Kuster

news

Time Out New York Review

PRISM Quartet

Breath Beneath (New Dynamic Records)

Indicative of PRISM's virtuosity, Kristin Kuster's Breath Beneath captures the lower register of the sax family. If (Roshanne Etezady's Keen) took inspiration from anthropology, Kuster thrives in the world of arhcitecture, here creating a rich cityscape of sound. The instruments are greater than the sum of their parts, at various turns creating a full orchestral sound. — Olivia Giovetti, Time Out New York, Issue 748: 28 Jan-3 Feb, 2010.

San Francisco Classical Voice Review

COMPANIONABLE SCORES

The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble's practice of commissioning companion pieces to established repertoire is such a marvelous idea that it's strange not to see it emulated everywhere . . . Sam Nichols and Kristin Kuster had the nerve-racking task of coming up with a piece to stand alongside the Grosse Fugue. They did it well, in quite different ways.

. . . Kuster's Midnight Mirror is another sort of beast. Her own account is vivid. Of the Grosse Fugue, she says that in it Beethoven "celebrates the relentless intensity of time, our enraptured emotionality that's over in the blink of an eye, our strained and fumbling grip on time, churning, incessant, and ceaseless." Fair enough.

Kuster's concrete point of reference in the Beethoven seems to have been that unnerving eruption of trills midway through. A thicket of joyous trills starts her piece, to return later; the violins play long, sinuous lines, over insistent, impetuous music from viola and cello. In proximity to the Grosse Fugue the piece did seem to have almost an indecently optimistic outlook on life; that might have been the point. — Michelle Dulak Thomson, San Francisco Classical Voice, 10 December 2009.

Lost Gulch Lookout released on NAXOS

The University of Georgia Wind Ensemble, under the baton of John P. Lynch, released Kristin Kuster's Lost Gulch Lookout on the new CD "Millennium Canons: Looking Forward, Looking Back" on the NAXOS label. — Listen to NAXOS podcast about the CD, July 2009.

Music Alive: New Partnerships Program through Meet The Composer & The League of American Orchestras

Kristin Kuster has been selected by Meet The Composer & The League of American Orchestras for the New Partnerships initiative, which fosters new relationships between composers and orchestras. Fully funded one-week residencies involving community engagement with the composer and performance of the composer's work are in the offering to orchestras and other performing and presenting organizations. — Meet The Composer, February 2009.

Kristin Kuster appointed to University of Michigan Faculty

Kristin Kuster will join the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance faculty as Assistant Professor of Composition in September 2008.

Summerfest Closes with Premiere Inspired by KC Art

Kristin Kuster speaks with National Public Radio Kansas City Affiliate's Laura Spencer about the Summerfest premiere of Ribbon Earth. — Listen to KCUR Arts

Kansas City Star Interview

SUM FUN: CLASSICAL

Kristin Kuster discusses her new work Ribbon Earth, inspired by the sculpture "Pax Mundi" by local artist Brent Collins. Ribbon Earth, for flute, clarinet, bassoon & string quartet, was commissioned by the Kansas City Summerfest Chamber Series, and will be premiered 2-3 August 2008 in Kansas City. — Paul Horsley, Kansas City Star, 21 May 2008.

Washington Post Review

ANNAPOLIS ORCHESTRA'S PLEASANT PASTORALS:
KUSTER PREMIERE IS EASY ON THE EARS

Nestled among three warhorses was a world premiere by New York composer Kristin Kuster. Her offering—Beneath This Stone—was a pleasant, conservative work, with slower sections redolent of the British pastoralists and faster music in the American eclectic style of Michael Torke and John Adams. It featured prominent (and well-played) solos for the piccolo and violin, and a striking passage where two trumpets grappled and jousted. The work is not laborious, carries the ear along and ends just when it should. — Robert Battey, Washington Post, 24 March 2008.

The Capital Review

SPRING RHAPSODY DELIGHTFUL

One of the most wonderous aspects about "Great Music" is how, if you listen to it with an open mind (and open ears), you can frequently learn something new about a piece, no matter how many times you've heard it. With that thought in mind, I can heartily endorse the beauty and wonder in Kristin Kuster's new work, Beneath This Stone. My initial thoughts as I listened to her music were of simplicity and directness, but then I realized that as she continued to add new instruments and new themes to the musical fabric, she had preserved the original ones, so that in a relatively short time we were overwhelmed by a surfeit of musical themes, each distinct in what it had to say, yet each serving as a small part of an overall harmony.

From the lyrical beginning of Beneath This Stone, we progressed into a musical world of kinetic energy, a frenetic and rapidly moving series of themes punctuated by the brass and percussion. With its syncopation and relentless rhythm, this portion of Beneath This Stone reminded me of a kinder, gentler "Rite of Spring" (only with no human sacrifice at the conclusion).

With its multiplicity of themes, dazzling effects and surprising shifts of tempo, Beneath This Stone is the kind of piece one needs to hear several times to fully assimilate its musical motifs and appreciate the techniques and mastery of its composer.

I volunteer.

— David Lindauer, The Capital, 26 March 2008.

Baltimore Sun Reviews

"SPRING RHAPSODY" NOT PASTEL FOR ASO

Capping off the program was Beneath This Stone, Kristin Kuster's entry in the Annapolis Charter 300 Young Composers Competition that the orchestra is sponsoring this year. Her work, a musical tribute to the pulses and rhythms lying beneath the surface of Annapolis, was nearly twice as long as its two predecessors in the contest, which gave it time to say something. Its lyrical interludes are full of plush harmonies, and I like the repetitious, minimalist-inspired urban beat, which might be subtitled, "An American in Annapolis on Groundhog Day." — Phil Greenfield, Baltimore Sun, 26 March 2008.

:: :: ::

STRIKING THE RIGHT CHORDS IN ANNAPOLIS
NOVO'S ORCHESTRA WAS CONSISTENT, VIBRANT

Rounding out the program was the premiere of Beneath This Stone by Kristin Kuster. Kuster's work, inspired by a plaque at the spot where a fountain to mark the 200th anniversary of the city charter was intended but never built, reveals a deft control of instrumentation, with sparkly writing for woodwinds and percussion.

Stylistically, the piece embraces mildly piquant dissonance, lyrical directness and traces of minimalist motor rhythm. Transitions between fast and slow sections of the score are too abrupt, as if the composer made sudden edits to keep the music within the six-to-ten-minute length required, but the overall effect is nonetheless engaging. (Jose-Luis) Novo drew a tight, lively performance. — Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun, 25 March 2008.

Kristin Kuster receives Jerome Foundation Commissioning Program Award from the American Composers Forum

The Jerome Composers Commissioning Program, now in its 28th year and one of only a few national commissioning programs, supports the production of new musical works by emerging composers. — American Composers Forum, 24 October 2007.

Kristin Kuster selected for American Opera Projects' Composers & the Voice Series

Each season American Opera Projects selects composers to work with the company's Resident Ensemble of Singers for its nationally recognized Composers & the Voice Workshop Series. Six emerging composers have been chosen by American Opera Projects to spend a year writing for the operatic voice. — American Opera Projects, 5 October 2007.

Annapolis Symphony commissions Kristin Kuster

Four young composers have been chosen to capture the Annapolis spirit in music for the city's 300th birthday next year, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra has announced. The three men and one woman, drawn from an international field of more than 100 applicants, each will create an Annapolis-inspired work to be performed by the orchestra during its 2007-2008 season. — Jamie Stiehm, Baltimore Sun, 15 April 2007.

ASO chooses finalists for composer competition. — Theresa Winslow, Annapolis Capital-Gazette, 29 April 2007.

New York Times Review

NEW MUSIC FROM AMERICAN COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA AT CARNEGIE HALL

Kristin Kuster's Myrrha (2006), for orchestra and chamber chorus (the ACO Singers) drew on Ovid's story of a woman who lusted after her father (the result of being cursed by Aphrodite) and was transformed by the gods into a tree. Stravinsky's shadow is caught hovering over more than a few passages, both in savage, bright-edged chords in the "Sacre" style, and in the ritualistic accent he used in works like "Oedipus Rex." But Ms. Kuster's choral writing has an invitingly tart edge, and she writes commandingly for the orchestra. — Allan Kozinn, New York Times, 5 May 2006.

Night after Night Review

SHOCK OF THE NEW

Kristin Kuster's Myrrha, a setting of texts from Ovid for three amplified sopranos, male chorus and orchestra, unquestionably demonstrated the composer's expertise in crafting unique timbres. Here, my hesitancy to declare full apprehension had more to do with the specific ways in which she set her texts. The rippling harp and luscious bass clarinet figures behind the word "noctis" ("night") seemed fitting, as did the resounding booms that punctuated the repeated appearances of "Me miseram" ("I am wretched"). The sopranos bent their notes like a folk choir under succulent lines translated as, "The golden moon flies from the heavens, and black clouds cover the hiding stars, and Night has lost her fires." But the burbling conga drum and rhumba intimations that percolated behind the lyric in which Myrrha is transformed into a tree gave me pause — while incidentally making me think of similarly jarring juxtapositions of word and sound in Osvaldo Golijov's works — and the rhythmic ferocity with which Kuster set lines that described bent branches and falling tears were disorienting in much the same way. Still, even at 15 minutes in length, this felt like a piece one might fruitfully spend much more time getting to know. And despite my seeming ambivalence, I will add that in the end, Kuster's compositional ingenuity outweighed my questions with regard to its deployment. Judith Clurman's well-drilled chorus did outstanding work, and the piece received a rousing response, well deserved. — Steve Smith, Night after Night, 5 May 2006.

Sequenza 21 News & Reviews

Also I attended the ACO concert last night at Carnegie.... The unquestionable highlight of the evening, however, was Kristin Kuster's Myrrha, a lush and visceral work for orchestra and amplified voices based on Ovid's Metamorphoses. Let's hope it finds its way to recording-dom soon. — David Salvage, Sequenza 21 News & Reviews, 6 May 2006.

New Music Connoisseur Review

Kuster's piece uses selections from Ovid's text on Myrrha. She was turned into a tree for punishment of her Oedipal sin which itself was caused by a god's jealousy. The myrrh's tree sap is said to be her tears. The work is a wonderful mix of colors and textures, often brilliantly pointillistic. But it also conveys pain, sadness and terror in soft but dramatic accompaniments to the texts. The ACO singers were clearly heard and felt. This is a thrilling work which deserves repeated performances. — Peter Kroll, New Music Connoisseur 14:1 (Summer/Fall 2006), p. 19.

Myrrha in the Making

Kristin Kuster discusses the impact of her participation in ACO's 2004 New Music Readings and upcoming premiere of Myrrha at Carnegie Hall on May 3, 2006, with her mentor and colleague Michael Daugherty. American Composers Orchestra Interview, April 2006.

Other News

Symphony Magazine Article: Making a Name: New compositional voices find inspiration in the orchestra while wrestling with the realities of the musical world.

John Clare's Nevada Public Radio Show

American Composers Orchestra Article: Composer Kristin Kuster wins 2004 Underwood Commission.

New Music Box Article: Kristin Kuster wins ACO Commission.

Sequenza 21 Article: Kristin Kuster's Latest Stand.

Sequenza 21 Article: Prism Saxophone Quartet: Adventuresome Men with Horns — premiere concert including Kristin Kuster's Breath Beneath.

ArborWeb Article: Vox Christmas Music — including Kristin Kuster's Rorate Caeli.

© Copyright 2009 Kristin Kuster, All Rights Reserved.