Kristin Center

Kristin Center (born August 8, 1988, Cambridge, MA) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. Studying solo classical piano since age 5, she made her first public performance at age 6 in Seattle, Washington. Kristin has been an active participant in various wind ensembles, orchestras and big bands since age 9. Currently she continues to follow both passions of composition and performance while pursuing both classical and jazz styles. Her predominant teachers have been Dr. William Chapman Nyaho (2002-2006 in Renton, WA), a specialist in African Diaspora and international performer, and Dr. Martha Thomas (2006-2009 in Athens, GA), the chair of the piano department at the University of Georgia where Kristin was the first performance student to complete a four-year Bachelors degree in Music in three years http://www.music.uga.edu. Kristin's vocal range is 3 octaves and registers from contralto to soprano.
Early Life and Family
Kristin is of Native American, French and German ancestry, although her past family spent much time in Spain, Italy and South America. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Christopher Center (Software engineer) and Barbara Kuhn-Center (visual artist and dancer). Shortly after the birth of their only child, the family moved to Rhode Island in 1989, and in November 1990 they drove across the country to Seattle, Washington. Within 5 years the family had decided to move and build their own home in the country on multiple acres of property. Being out of reach of TV reception, without siblings, and located high in the mountains away from public transportation, much of Kristin's early childhood was spent alone thus causing her early artistic inspiration to spawn mainly from her natural surroundings.

With an unusual combination of exposure to music, Kristin's ear was trained early to be very open minded. When her mother was pregnant, fetus-Kristin was introduced to live J.S. Bach performances and Mozart Operas, and when she was old enough to use her arms, she was already composing simple melodies with her mother at their upright piano and drawing constantly at the drafting table. Her father, on the other hand, was busy encouraging a rock climbing, skiing and hiking lifestyle, something that too would inhabit and stimulate Kristin's creativity and lifestyle.

As the time passed, Kristin's mother became an active Flamenco dancer and having previously spent much time in South America, the families listening collection consisted of much world music, Brazilian and Latin beats, jazz and, of course, classical. At age 9, Kristin became an active participant in any musical opportunities in the valley including various wind ensembles and orchestras, but the genres that she enjoyed and pursued the most were her solo classical piano and jazz alto saxophone. However, living as a young teenager in America, it was quite impossible to refuse influence from typical female pop artists such as Lauryn Hill, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, TLC and Whitney Houston. Therefore, her compositions were harmonically founded on classical and jazz chords, her voice sounded of pop and folk origin, and the undertone beneath everything was a brazilian and reggae beat. During this time, her young brain acted like a sponge to soak up all the instrument sounds she could produce. She played trumpet and horn for 2 years, djembe for 3, clarinet for 4, and the Accordion and Harmonium for 6 months.

Career and Study
Kristin is the winner of the Gerschefski Competition Scholarship, winner of the alternate finalist for the Seattle International Piano Competition, and the pro-Mozart Society Scholarship in Atlanta and 2008 GMEA first prize winner.
Kristin has performed nationally in Seattle, Atlanta, Boston and New York and internationally in Austria and France. She holds a full scholarship to Southern Methodist University, where she currently studies with Alfred Mouledous (a student of both Walter Gieseking and Alfred Cortot) and winner of the 2009 Avery fisher Career Grant, Alessio Bax. Kristin has recently developed her classical music technique working with artists such as Murray Perahia, Menahem Pressler, Orli Shaham, Jean Paul Sevilla, Robert Levin and in festivals including the International Keyboard Institute and Festival held in New York City and the Mozarteum Summer Institute in Salzburg, Austria where she also held full scholarships. Academically speaking, she holds a cumulative 3.85 and is a National Collegiate Scholar.

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