https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Amy-Beth-Kirsten-is-finally-convinced-that-she-s-11599877.php
Amy Beth Kirsten is finally convinced that she's a composer (video) Donna Doherty, Register Arts Editor Published 12:00 am, Sunday, July 11, 2010
New Haven composer Amy Beth Kirsten is off to her second summer music festival. (Contributed)
NEW HAVEN -- Amy Beth Kirsten says she was a late bloomer when it came to her chosen career, but it seems the New Haven composer is making up for it in quick order. "The idea of becoming a composer really snuck up on me," she says, though she'd been singing and writing songs nearly her whole life, and made a living with it as a Chicago pop singer/songwriter for a decade starting in the early 1990s. Today, she's heading to Columbia, Mo., for the inaugural Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, which takes place Monday through July 18 -- one of eight composers selected from more than 120 applicants from the People's Republic of China, France, Spain, Turkey, Korea, Mexico and the U.S. "The summer festival circuit didn't really occur to me because I'm kind of older (37). I didn't have my first composition lesson until I was 30."
What she left out perhaps was the word classical. For some reason, she was short-shrifting the legitimacy of the writing she's been doing since childhood -- "since I met my first piano. When I was a little girl, I sat down and made songs, and in high school wrote pieces for the choir." It's a good thing that someone else in their Wooster Square household, namely her boyfriend, Chris Theofanidis, an acclaimed professor of composition at the Yale School of Music, urged the former Midwesterner to test her talent on the festival circuit. "At some point, I sat down with my boyfriend, who's been in the business and said 'what can I do to keep moving forward?' He suggested festivals." Kirsten is having quite a summer. The voice and piano major (Benedictine University) finished her doctorate four weeks ago at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where she's been commuting to finish her degree. She touched back down here for just a week after spending two weeks as a composition fellow at Music10 in Blonay, Switzerland, before heading to Mizzou. Last summer, Kirsten applied for her first festival, and was pleasantly surprised to be accepted, and then some. "I got picked for two festivals which are very well known (Norfolk New Music and Bang on a Can), and have a high level of musicians applying for them. I was really stimulated by the experience," she says. Kirsten, who's also a published poet, finds her inspiration in poetry, a story or painting that starts the writing process. Then, at some point, she leaves the concept behind, and lets the music take over, a lesson that shows she's maturing as a composer. "Some young composers get so married to the concept that they stop listening to what the music's telling you. It's hard to trust that, to pay attention to what the music is telling you." Her biggest challenge, she says, is the actual physical act of writing down the notes on paper, because often she can't keep up with the speed of the notes running around in her head. "I'm starting to get faster. It's like training a muscle." The festival circuit works a bit differently for composers as opposed to musicians. The latter show up with prepared pieces in hand and perform before a panel of judges. A composer is judged well before the festival begins, the work selected to be part of the festival, to be played by the musicians. It's a collaborative experience that Kirsten finds really satisfying as well as educational. "It's two weeks of rehearsing your piece. There's a little bit of editing. Once you hear the piece for the first time, there are always some things to tweak. It's nice to hear it in this leisurely way and take their suggestions. "I really love the collaborative process. It will be the same in Missouri ... It's kind of like on-the-job training in a way. You write the piece, then have the collaborative sessions. You learn a lot in a short time when interacting with musicians." Her piece, which will be played by the New York chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound, is called "Drink Me," which she describes as a fun piece based on the scary stories of her childhood: "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "Snow White," and "Alice in Wonderland." "I realized that they all have one connection: a poison motif. This poison transforms them." She takes three short movements and telescopes each of them down, getting shorter and shorter to the final small movement.
Her works have been performed by l'orchestre de la francophonie canadienne, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Harbor Opera Company, San Francisco Cabaret Opera and at the Fringe Festival in New York, among others. Though she is a classically trained pianist, Kirsten stopped performing "a long time ago" to channel all her energy into composing. Jetlag will no doubt become a way of life for Kirsten as she lengthens her considerable resume, which also includes teaching a once-a-week class in "The History of Rock and Society" at the University of Connecticut. So far, that's helped pay the bills, but even Kirsten, a matter-of-fact woman who is fully aware of her accomplishments, though still maintains a healthy dose of wonder about her success, is ready to admit that "composer" is soon to be her full-time occupation. Kirsten says that 9/11 had a profound effect on her, and played a role in her decision to pursue this career. "It woke me up considerably, and I decided I was going to apply for a masters in composing at Roosevelt University. I started to question what I was going to do with my life. The event made me realize how fragile life is, and it started snowballing. I knew I had to do this." Kirsten's goal is to concentrate on orchestral compositions, because, "Orchestra is like a big lumbering bear. It moves more slowly than a chamber ensemble, which is like a cat that darts around," she says of the challenge. She's also entered the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra competition, which culminates in a commission to write a piece that will be performed by them at Carnegie Hall. Four finalists will be selected, with online comments playing a role in the decision. She'll finish work on her opera based on "The Little Red Riding Hood," and continue to keep up a steady correspondence with conductors to convince then to give a listen to this new/old talent. Donna Doherty may be reached at 203-789-5672. © 2018 Hearst Communications, Inc.
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