Amy Beth Kirsten News

The New School announced today that acclaimed percussionist, Ian Rosenbaum, has joined the faculty of Mannes School of Music.

The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation announced its 2019 grants in The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation's Orchestra Commissioning Program for Emerging Female Composers.

The Mizzou New Music Initiative (MNMI) has selected eight resident composers to participate in the 2019 Mizzou International Composers Festival (MICF).  

Peak Performances presents the world premiere of Spinning, a collaborative musical work written and composed by Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur Fellow Julia Wolfe (Anthracite Fields, 2015), and conceived with "cello goddess" (The New Yorker) Maya Beiser, with multimedia projections by innovative artist Laurie Olinder (May 10-13). Commissioned by Peak Performances and culminating their season of works by women, Spinning considers the essential labor of spinning thread-work once performed by hand by women-paying homage to the human dignity of this "women's work."

Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, the New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), presents its seventh annual New Work performance on Saturday, February 3, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. at the New World Center. New Work is dedicated to commissioning and premiering new pieces from high-profile and developing artists across a range of genres, exploring intersections between music, theater, dance, poetry, video, lighting, and other art forms. This year's program opens with a world premiere, multidisciplinary performance of selections from Glimpse of the Big Picture, conceived, scored, and authored by NWS Artistic Director/Co-Founder Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT). Divided into three parts, the performance brings music together with the spoken word, featuring MTT as speaker. The 2018 New Work program also includes two NWS commissions: composer Ted Hearne and filmmaker Jonathan David Kane's 2017 crowdsourced, multimedia symphony, Miami in Movements, in a revised version; and the world premiere of The Inherent Sadness of Low-Lying Areas, a short play by playwright Christopher Wall featuring music by a variety of composers, from Bach to Saariaho.

With the launch of its 2017-18 season this fall, the New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), led by Co-Founder and Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT), celebrates 30 years as the nation's most innovative training ground for the next generation of classical musicians, preparing its resident Fellows for professional careers through an experiential curriculum of hands-on training, live performance, and audience interaction.

The New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), will perform its sixth annual New Work program—dedicated to commissioning and premiering new pieces from high-profile and developing artists across a range of genres, intersecting music with theater, dance, poetry, video, lighting, and other art forms—on Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. at the New World Center.

Peak Performances will present the world premiere of Quixote, from composer-librettist Amy Beth Kirsten and director-designer Mark DeChiazza, March 23-26.

The New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), will perform its sixth annual New Work program-dedicated to commissioning and premiering new pieces from high-profile and developing artists across a range of genres, intersecting music with theater, dance, poetry, video, lighting, and other art forms-on Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. at the New World Center. The program will include a new Michael Tilson Thomas-led and -conceived stage production of Niccolo Castiglioni's Inverno In-Ver, the premiere performance of an orchestral version of Oscar Bettison's Lights in Ashes led by NWS Conducting Fellow Dean Whiteside, and the world premiere of a New World Symphony commission from John Supko, composed for viola and electronics.

Peak Performances will present the world premiere of Quixote, from composer-librettist Amy Beth Kirsten and director-designer Mark DeChiazza, March 23-26.

Composer Paola Prestini, the Creative and Executive Director of the National Sawdust (NS), announces the initial programming for the non-profit's winter 2016 season in its acclaimed new home -- a $16 million, 13,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art chamber hall in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Composer Paola Prestini, the Creative and Executive Director of the National Sawdust (NS), announces the initial programming for the non-profit's winter 2016 season in its acclaimed new home -- a $16 million, 13,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art chamber hall in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

After nine years, flutist Tim Munro is leaving eighth blackbird at the end of the 2014-15 season and New York based flutist Nathalie Joachim will begin as the new permanent flutist with the ensemble in August, for the 2015-16 Season and beyond.

eighth blackbird combines the virtuosity of a string quartet with the energy of a rock band and the audacity of a storefront theater company. eighth blackbird will be performing tonight, February 7, 2015 at Jones Playhouse on the University of Washington campus at 7:30pm.

eighth blackbird combines the virtuosity of a string quartet with the energy of a rock band and the audacity of a storefront theater company. eighth blackbird will be performing on Saturday, February 7, 2015 at Jones Playhouse on the University of Washington campus at 7:30pm.

Miller opens its fall season with a captivating new production. Sparking a music dialogue across centuries, Heart & Breath deftly combines modern arrangements of music by Gesualdo and Monteverdi with contemporary works that blend music, dance, and theater, including composer Amy Beth Kirsten's 'wildly imaginative' (Washington Post)Colombine's Paradise Theatre. The six musicians of eighth blackbird play, speak, sing, whisper, growl, and mime, breathing theatrical life into the timeless characters of thecommedia dell'arte in this uniquely immersive concert experience.

Miller opens its fall season with a captivating new production. Sparking a music dialogue across centuries, Heart & Breath deftly combines modern arrangements of music by Gesualdo and Monteverdi with contemporary works that blend music, dance, and theater, including composer Amy Beth Kirsten's "wildly imaginative" (Washington Post)Colombine's Paradise Theatre. The six musicians of eighth blackbird play, speak, sing, whisper, growl, and mime, breathing theatrical life into the timeless characters of thecommedia dell'arte in this uniquely immersive concert experience.

Miller Theatre is pleased to now announce its 2014-15 season, the fifth under the exuberant leadership of director Melissa Smey.

Tonight, April 1 at 7:30pm at Opera America's National Opera Center, New York Festival of Song concludes its 2013-14 edition of NYFOS Next-the series for new song in which composers curate and host an hour of contemporary song-with celebrated composer HAROLD MELTZER.