Kirsten Reese

Kirsten Reese (* 1968 in Kiel) grew up in the Rhineland, Hong Kong and the Philippines. She studied flute, electronic music and composition in Berlin (Hochschule der Künste, Technische Universität) and in 1992/93 in New York. She has worked as a flutist, author and curator in the field of contemporary music and sound art.

As a composer and sound artist, she composes and produces works for electronic media and instruments as well as intermedia and interactive installations. Spatial and perceptual as well as performative and narrative aspects play a prominent role in her work.

Many works focus on ‘found sound’ and thematise aspects of ‘documentary composing’, e.g. Hermann Scherchen’s rotating loudspeaker sphere (2017, Neue Vocalsolisten).

Kirsten Reese’s interest in the contextualisation of media/media history and the specificity and aura of media instruments is reflected in ‘Light Green Rituals’ for historical Fairlight synthesizer and ensemble (2018, Ensemble Mosaik) and ‘the lightest words had the weight of oracles’ (2014/16) for Fairlight CMI and electric guitar, among others. She also specialises in compositions, installations and audio walks for landscapes and outdoor urban spaces.

Kirsten Reese has received numerous scholarships and prizes. Her works have been performed internationally in concerts and at festivals, including ECLAT, KONTAKTE Akademie der Künste, Wien modern, Heroines of Sound, Kunstfest Weimar, Festival attaca, Donaueschinger Musiktage, SPOR Festival Aarhus, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Festival Rümlingen, Borealis Festival Bergen, MIBEM Festival Melbourne.

She has been teaching electro-acoustic composition at the Berlin University of the Arts since 2005. From 2007 to 2009 she was a visiting professor for artistic transformation processes there. In 2011 she was a lecturer in the Music and Media Art programme at Bern University of the Arts. In 2018, she was a lecturer in composition at the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music and led the workshop ‘Composing with the Archive’.

In 2010, Wolke Verlag published the catalogue Medien Klang Konstellationen, in 2019 the CD the lightest words on the label world edition.

Kirsten Reese has been a member of the Music Section of the Akademie der Künste Berlin since 2021.