Welcome to Kaska Publishing, which maintains the web site of Anne Kilstofte, an American composer and music educator working in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota. Dr. Kilstofte primarily writes for ensembles such as orchestras, choirs, chamber groups (string quartets, brass quintets, and woodwind quintets, to name only a few), and for audiences both young and old. Her compositions for voice are thought by some to be her true metier.
Kilstofte was raised in Colorado by a visual artist and structural engineer and was immersed in classical music from a very early age. She began piano studies at age 4, and performing professionally at the age of 12, as a pianist, organist, and singer. Musical Style
In the genre of choral and vocal music her work has been heralded for its aptitude in sensitive text painting and vocal textures. Music critics have praised the subtlety of her palette displaying an exceptional variety of tone color, conjuring landscapes that are sometimes misty, sometimes luminous, always atmospheric. Her instrumental and vocal lines are lyrical and memorable. Listening to several of her works one finds the colors within a piece that bring the piece together, as well as the textures and motion, very similar to that of painting and sculpting. The instrument or voice merely aids in bringing to light the nuances of those colors.