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Kristin Kuster is a composer based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. She enjoys being outside, spending time with her son, and drinking coffee. She is the Chair of Composition for the University of Michigan. Her music is often inspired by architecture, mythology, and weather. She is the recipient of many awards, grants, and commissions and has also received a Henry Russel Award from the University of Michigan for her outstanding creativity achievements and teaching contributions.
Ribbon Windows Curtain Walls is a piece written for violin and erhu. Erhu is a traditional Chinese stringed instrument often referred to in the Western world as a Chinese violin. It was commissioned by the Master Players Concert Series of the University of Delaware. For this piece, a special vacation house that her family built and often visited was the source of inspiration. In her program notes she recounts the architecture of the house and how the design created an atmosphere of natural lighting that made a lasting impression. The piece itself is orchestrated with the two strings often playing in tandem. Beautifully woven together, their counterpoint reminds me of light refracting and subsequently dancing together.
Rain Chain is another piece that was inspired by the house in the previous piece. Written for solo vibraphone it captures the rusted links, the height at which it was hung, the water which flows over the intertwined pieces of metal. She explains in her program notes how it sings “a lovely counterpoint of delicate water smoothing, flickering over the chain’s hard, strong, weathered metal.” Beautifully composed, the strong repeated notes challenge its counterpoint of the beautifully “flowing” water down the chain as the melodies work together. One can sit and imagine the wonderment and awe that filled Kuster as a child watching the two work together to create almost an art form while performing a very basic, everyday task.
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I do not own any of the music or videos in this blog post or in any other posts that you may find in this blog.
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