Fire Balloon by Amy Beth Kirsten

We are excited to share with you our newest commission: "Fire Balloon" by Amy Beth Kirsten!  Below is a pre-performance talk with Amy followed by our NYC premiere at The National Opera Center:

Pre-performance talk:


Live premiere of Fire Balloon:


Funded in part through New Music USA's MetLife Creative Connections program!

Talk with Amy Beth Kirsten

Last Friday we met with Amy Beth Kirsten during her residency at Copland House!  After rehearsing her new piece "Fire Balloon" we sat down to talk about her music, background, and approach to composing.  Many thanks to New Music USA's MetLife Creative Connections program for partial funding.

Amy Beth Kirsten at Copland House

We went to Aaron Copland's house yesterday to work with Amy Beth Kirsten on her new piece Fire Balloon!  Amy is the current composer staying there (composers are offered multiweek residencies).  It's a wonderful home and the perfect space for working on music. All around the house are framed handwritten scores by Copland, photos, and posters from concerts.

Fire Balloon is the latest commissioned piece by my Emerging Voices Project.  It uses an original text by Amy Beth Kirsten about fire balloons (hot air balloons).  She grew up in an area with lots of hot air balloons and mimics the unique sound of the burners turning on and off.  We will be premiering the piece this weekend and taking it on tour with the other commissioned works from our 2011 CD.

We also spent some time interviewing Amy for my composer talks series.  We hope to get the video online within the week.  Many thanks to New Music USA's MetLife Creative Connections program for partial funding of our project.

And yes, the above photo is the Copland House's mailbox.

MetLife Creative Connections award for EVP composers

Emerging Voices Project has earned a MetLife Creative Connections award from New Music USA! Elisabeth Halliday and I will be performing works by Kathleen Bader, Amy Beth Kirsten, and George Lam in an East Coast tour this winter.  The award will support pre-concert talks by our composers, interviews, and performance videos posted to YouTube. We are very grateful to have our project "Funded in part through New Music USA's MetLife Creative Connections program"!

Congratulations to Amy Beth Kirsten!

This month Amy Beth Kirsten was named a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of a Levy Supplemental Stipend for music composition. You can read the press release here. Way to go Amy!

Amy is one of four composers writing music for our Emerging Voices Project. We are looking forward to working with her in the Fall.