Amber Vistein
Amber Vistein (b. 1984) is a composer and sound artist who delves deeply into the poetics of timbre, texture, and gesture. Praised for her conceptual “acuity” (Big, Red, and Shiny) and “blooming phrases” (New Music Box), they draw upon research in affect theory, historical musicology, and psychoacoustics to compose music filled with storied textural details, shifting temporal effects, and affectively charged atmospheres. Their style is defined by the juxtaposition of a visceral gestural vocabulary alongside evocative textural constructions; cross-cutting registers from the autonomic to the atmospheric. This highly tactile approach to composition works to unearth invisible events, networks, and histories by introducing expressive imperfections—dysfluencies—into the musical sentence. These sites of rupture (a suspended trill, stutter, or broken-record loop) expose the submerged complexities of sound, the labor of its production, and its fragility.
Amber has recently had the pleasure of composing for the Empyrean Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Chartreuse, Ensemble Dal Niente, Russel Greenberg of Yarn/Wire, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She created site-specific sound installations for the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA and collaborated with video artist Justice to present the multi-media work Landscapes at the Peabody Essex Museum. They were an artist-in-residence with ArtsIceland in Ísafjörður, Iceland. And participated in NYU's Summer Film Scoring Workshop, EMPAC's Spatial Audio Workshop, and soundSCAPE composer-performer exchange in Cesena, Italy (2019).
From 2017-19 Amber was a Composition Fellow with the American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice program. They were commissioned by the Washington National Opera to compose a 20-minute chamber opera in collaboration with librettist Rebecca Hart as part of the American Opera Initiative program. This work, entitled The Barrens, premiered at the Kennedy Center in April 2021. Man Will Not Outlive the Weather—Amber’s first chamber opera for mezzo-soprano, ensemble and electronics—premiered in 2017. Amber is also a 2022 recipient of the Discovery Grant from Opera America in support of their first full-length opera, Dark Exhalation, for four voices, ensemble, and electronics.. A lab production of Dark Exhalation premiered at the Somerville Armory in October 2023 and received a standing ovation.
Amber holds degrees from Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MFA) and Brown University (MA, PhD). They are currently an Assistant Professor of Audio Production at Emerson College where they teach courses focused on sound design, sound installation, and music production
Amber has recently had the pleasure of composing for the Empyrean Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Chartreuse, Ensemble Dal Niente, Russel Greenberg of Yarn/Wire, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She created site-specific sound installations for the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA and collaborated with video artist Justice to present the multi-media work Landscapes at the Peabody Essex Museum. They were an artist-in-residence with ArtsIceland in Ísafjörður, Iceland. And participated in NYU's Summer Film Scoring Workshop, EMPAC's Spatial Audio Workshop, and soundSCAPE composer-performer exchange in Cesena, Italy (2019).
From 2017-19 Amber was a Composition Fellow with the American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice program. They were commissioned by the Washington National Opera to compose a 20-minute chamber opera in collaboration with librettist Rebecca Hart as part of the American Opera Initiative program. This work, entitled The Barrens, premiered at the Kennedy Center in April 2021. Man Will Not Outlive the Weather—Amber’s first chamber opera for mezzo-soprano, ensemble and electronics—premiered in 2017. Amber is also a 2022 recipient of the Discovery Grant from Opera America in support of their first full-length opera, Dark Exhalation, for four voices, ensemble, and electronics.. A lab production of Dark Exhalation premiered at the Somerville Armory in October 2023 and received a standing ovation.
Amber holds degrees from Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MFA) and Brown University (MA, PhD). They are currently an Assistant Professor of Audio Production at Emerson College where they teach courses focused on sound design, sound installation, and music production