The Festival is dedicated to advancing chamber music through commissions. This year, we are premiering a work by Kyle Rivera, which we co-commissioned with Chamber Music Northwest and the Seattle Chamber Music Society.
The ever-evolving artistic perspective of Kyle Rivera (b. 1996) makes his music a space for intrigue and exploration. Rivera is fascinated by visual imagery in sound and the way it can create windows into his mind. He often draws upon the diverse sonic and cultural environments he grew up in to craft the soundscapes of his music.
Linguistics, spirituality, and media all influence the way Rivera creates music. One of Rivera’s goals as an artist is to offer a perspective on the world through his personal experiences. Some of his music has focused on topics relating to social justice, equality, and racialized matters. Alongside that, his music explores the conceptual limits of psychology, spirituality, and consciousness in sound.
As a composer, his music has been performed across the United States and internationally in Russia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and China. Kyle was the 2023 Anne Spencer Fellow with the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He received a 2024 MacDowell Fellowship and an Aaron Copland House Residency.
Recently, Rivera received the “Best New Commission of the Year” award from the Chamber Music America Conference. We couldn’t be more excited to host him at this year’s Festival!