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Carla Kihlstedt

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Biography:

Carla Kihlstedt has become an influential musical voice in the Bay Area since moving here 4 year ago. Having a rigorous background in classical music, she has since explored the range of her instrument in many other settings, always pushing the edges of what the violin can do. She studied at the Peabody, the San Francisco, and the Oberlin Conservatories of Music, has performed as soloist with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, and the Bach Ensemble of Baltimore, and has won prizes in several international competitions including the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in England. In the Bay Area, Carla has been involved in a number of collaborative projects both as composer and/or performer with John Schott, Ben Goldberg, and choreographer Jo Kreiter. She has also played with Eugene Chadbourne, John Zorn, earplay, and members of the Rova Saxophone Quartet. She is one of three singers in the Bay Area band Charming Hostess, and a founding member of tin hat trio--an accordion-violin-guitar trio whose debut album will be released on Capitol/Angel Records early next year.


Upcoming Events:

Jewish Community Center SF Kanbar Hall

3200 California St
@ Presidio Ave
SF

Thursday, Mar 4 2010 8:00 PM

OTHER MINDS 15
March 4-5-6
7pm Panel Dicussions 8pm Concerts

Concert One
Thursday, March 4, 2010

Jürg Frey
Streichquartett II (1998-2000)
Quatuor Bozzini

Chou Wen-chung
Twilight Colors (2007)
Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
The Willows Are New (1957)
Eva-Maria Zimmermann, piano

Lisa Bielawa
Kafka Songs (2001-03)
Carla Kihlstedt, voice & violin

The 15th Other Minds Music Festival opens with masterful works by composers from three different generations. Switzerland’s Jürg Frey (b. 1953), one of the most active members of the hyper-minimalist Wandelweiser collective, has developed an expansive oeuvre of nearly 120 works of the utmost simplicity and stark beauty, some with durations up to 6 hours. His second string quartet proceeds for nearly 30 minutes at the volume of a whisper, yet extracts the complexity of a full choir from the strings of our special guests, Montreal’s Quatuor Bozzini.

Chou Wen-chung (b. 1923) is known widely as the first Chinese-American classical composer and teacher of Tan Dun (OM 2), Ge Gan-ru (OM 9), and Chinary Ung (OM 14) among others. In his double-trio Twilight Colors, to be performed by San Francisco’s Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Chou draws influences from two cultures: the piece was inspired by the changing colors of the sky over the Hudson River Valley, yet constructed with a technique akin to the brushstrokes of early 17th century Chinese calligraphy. This source of inspiration, also evident in the early piano work The Willows Are New, evokes a lively landscape through subtle change and sophisticated organization.

The evening concludes with Kafka Songs, written by Lisa Bielawa (b. San Francisco, 1969) for the inimitable Carla Kihlstedt. Winner of this year’s prestigious Rome Prize, Bielawa brings together in Kafka Songs her expertise in vocal music, earned both through compositions and over 17 years of performances in the Philip Glass Ensemble, her literary interests, and her powerful sense of drama. As both vocalist and violinist, Kihlstedt leads this virtuosic exploration through the poetic side of Kafka, in seven reflections on stories from Meditation and Parables.

Single concert tickets: $25-$35 ($25 student; $31 JCCSF members; $35 general)
Festival pass: $60-$150 ($60 student; $74 JCCSF members; $79 general; $150 premium seating; premium Pass includes admission to opening night reception with the artists)

Complete details including composer bios and audio samples at otherminds.org.


CDs on which Carla Kihlstedt appears:

ArtistTitleLabelNumber
Ben GoldbergTwelve MinorAvant RecordsAVAN 035
John SchottShuffle Play: Elegies for the Recording AngelNew World Records80548-2
Phil Gelb, etcSMOKING BALANCELimited SeditionLS002