From the time Kristen first heard and studied art songs she fell in love with them. The way the voice soars. The way the piano swoops and rises. The poetry. All the feels! A seed was planted then that has grown into another facet of self-expression for Kristen.
When she composes art songs, one of her aims is to draw upon the wealth of material created by women who generously share their experience of the world—whether that world is fantastical, magical, or mundane. Kristen’s desire is to contribute to a world where little girls—in her life and everywhere—learn from a young age that they are valuable, worthy and as talented and capable as their male counterparts. She does this frequently by choosing fairy tale poems about women that are retold through a women’s lens.
Through art songs, Kristen combines her love for poetry and music, the beauty of the voice and piano and the poems she reads that strike a clear chord within her. It creates a triangle connecting the poet’s message to new audiences by setting poems she loves and collaborating with wonderful singers and collaborative duos to share the songs.
In August 2023, Kristen participated in Source Song Festival’s MNSong as one of eight composers who created an art song in response to a song from a composer of the canon. Kristen chose to respond to Debussy’s “Apparition” using a text by contemporary poet and author Mary McMyne. The poem, a Red Riding Hood retelling titled “The Girl Who Came Before” provided ample opportunity for lyric writing for both voice and piano. The song was written for Emily Rouse, light lyric soprano, and her collaborative pianist, Curtis Baum. It premiered in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 11, 2023. Special thanks to Wild Sound Recording Studios for video and audio recordings.
Further projects include:
“Five Songs on Poems by Sarah J. Sloat,” (scheduled to premiere of the full song set in the Washington, D.C. area in 2024). This set is is drawn from poems from In the Voice of a Minor Saint a chapbook by Sloat published by Sundress Publications. It includes the following poems:
- Vestment
- Summer’s End
- Please Remove My Name
- Folk Art
- Ghazal for Heavenly Bodies
“The Photograph and The Violin,” three songs on poems by Jude Cowan Montague. This set is completed and awaiting its premiere. It includes three songs:
- Inheritance
- Photograph
- The Violin
A fairytale song cycle on poems by Sally Rosen Kindred is in progress. The poems are drawn from the chapbook Says the Forest to the Girl from Porkbelly Press. “Says the Forest to the Girl” is also included in Kindred’s 2021 collection Where the Wolf from Diode Editions. One of the songs premiered virtually in July 2021 through Fresh Squeezed Opera’s Vocal Lab.
Contact Kristen to discuss a commission.