Amber Vistein (b. 1984, they / she) is a composer and sound artist who delves deeply into the poetics of timbre, texture, and gesture. Praised for their 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 highly tactile approach to composition works to rupture sonic conventions to expose the submerged complexities of sound, the labor of its production, and its fragility.

Their first full-length opera, Dark Exhalation, received a 2022 Discovery Grant from OPERA America. The Barrens, a recent chamber opera collaboration with librettist Rebecca Hart, was commissioned by the Washington National Opera and premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2021. Amber was a composition fellow with the American Opera Project from 2017-19 and received a PhD student in Music and Multimedia Composition at Brown University in 2022.