Eighth Blackbird
Heart and Breath

About the Artists

In 2013, the Chicago-based ensemble eighth blackbird snagged its third Grammy for its albumMeanwhile, winning in the chamber music category. Its previous Grammys were forLonely Motel: Music from Slidein 2012 andstrange imaginary animalsin 2006. The group has performed in Carnegie Hall in New York and the Barbican in London; with major symphony orchestras including Cleveland, Atlanta, and Toronto; and in multiple seasons at MCA Stage. In 2000, eighth blackbird performed Schoenberg'sPierrot lunaire at both the Kennedy Center and the MCA. eighth blackbird, which derived its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens's poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” is ensemble in residence at the University of Chicago, the University of Richmond, and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Amy Beth Kirsten, a native of Belleville, Illinois, is an ascending composer for orchestra, chamber ensemble, opera, and solo instruments, as well as a librettist and poet. While studying jazz at Benedictine University and composition at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, she performed her own songs in area clubs. She earned a doctorate in composition from the Peabody Conservatory and has won awards and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, Fromm Foundation, and the MAP Fund. Kirsten has taught at the Peabody Conservatory, Towson University, Wesleyan University, and the University of Connecticut. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

Mark DeChiazza is the director and designer for Colombine’s Paradise Theater. He works across disciplines as a director, filmmaker, designer, and choreographer, and first worked with eighth blackbird in 2009 on Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. DeChiazza created the film for Amy Beth Kirsten's work for orchestra, chorus, and film titled strange pilgrims, which the American Composers Orchestra premiered in 2014. Other recent video projects include projection design for two new operas by Jonathan Berger, Visitations: Theotokia and The War Reporter. Mark directed, choreographed, and designed projections for the premiere of Anthony Davis's opera Lear on the 2nd Floor. He recently directed a staged concert of Missy Mazzoli's work, and, in an ongoing collaboration with composer Stephen Mackey, is creating Orpheus Unsung: an opera for electric guitar.