Kirsten Volness is a composer, pianist, and educator who grew up outside a small town in southern Minnesota—a place which fostered in her a keen interest in the outdoors. She has received commissions from the BMI Foundation, ASCAP/SEAMUS, World Future Council Foundation, Third Practice Electroacoustic Festival, and Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance, writing new works for Hotel Elefant, NOW Ensemble, Hub New Music, Transient Canvas, Colorado Quartet, Cambridge Philharmonic, and Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. She performs with NYC-based Hotel Elefant and Providence-based Verdant Vibes, a new music ensemble and concert series she co-founded in 2015. Kirsten is 2017 composer-in-residence at the Music Mansion and collaborates with Meridian Project on multimedia performances exploring astrophysics, writes and performs operas with homeless advocacy group Tenderloin Opera Company, is an affiliate artist of Sleeping Weazel. She has twice been awarded the Fellowship in Music Composition from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. Holding composition degrees from the Universities of Michigan (DMA, MM) and Minnesota (BA summa cum laude), she teaches privately and at the University of Rhode Island. She has also served on the board of directors for the non-profit Boston New Music Initiative. www.kirstenvolness.com Listen on Soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/kirvo
Compositions
for 8-channel tape (stereo version)
Gaia is the theory that the earth is essentially a living thing, all of whose components have a dynamic relationship with other life systems. Present in both spiritual and scientific realms, a constant across the many different views of Gaia is that balance must be maintained for life to continue. Inspired by this concept of interrelated change, the piece seeks to explore a similar evolutionary dynamic, highlighting the repercussions that arise when human actions threaten the earth's balance.