Listen: Carla Kihlstedt’s “At Night We Walk In Circles”

In early 2013, boundary-shattering violinist, singer, and bandleader Carla Kihlstedt made quite a classical debut: She premiered At Night We Walk In Circles And Are Consumed by Fire onstage in New York with the International Contemporary Ensemble, which had commissioned the work. It is a striking and stirring nine-song cycle built around fragments of dreams solicited from the players themselves and Kihlstedt’s fans on Facebook. Alternately pastoral or demented, plaintive or demanding, At Night We Walk In Circles And Are Consumed by Fire challenges even ICE to invoke new textures and narrative sensibilities. You can listen to that world premiere and some great contextual background from New York Public Radio’s John Schaefer here.