Amber Vistein is a composer and sound artist who delves deeply into the poetics of timbre, texture, and gesture and has been praised for their conceptual “acuity” (Big, Red, and Shiny) and “blooming phrases” (New Music Box). Their compositions juxtapose visceral sonic gestures alongside evocative textural constructions. This highly tactile approach to composition works to unearth invisible events, networks, and histories by introducing expressive imperfections—a suspended trill, stutter, or broken-record loop—that expose the submerged complexities of sound, the labor of its production, and its fragility.

From 2017 to 2019 Amber was a Composition Fellow with the American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice program. They were commissioned by Washington National Opera to compose The Barrens, which premiered at the Kennedy Center in April 2021. Amber received a 2022 Discovery Grant from Opera America in support of their first full-length opera, Dark Exhalation. A lab production is planned for 2023. They have also created numerous site-specific sound installations, including Growth Continuum for the deCordova Museum, and soundtracks for the short films Murmur, Landscapes, and Let’s Look at Florida.

Amber is an Assistant Professor at Emerson College and holds degrees from Massachusetts College of Art (MFA) and Brown University (MA, Ph.D.).