Kristen
Toedtman sings for you. Her songs grow from the roots she was born with and others she cultivated from south america and spain, the east coast of a troubled america, late night solitude and from you, watching her. She'd much rather you sang along, by the way. She lives in Los Angeles and performs regularly in Hollywood (Pig 'n Whistle, Hotel Café, Highland Grounds), while working on an upcoming on-line radio program and singing with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. She also regularly travels to the east coast for solo performances and the Baltimore Afrobeat Society.
Kristen began her formal music training at the Manhattan School of
Music prep division studying violin. After a childhood of piano, violin
and saxophone lessons, she went on to Indiana University where, feeling
a greater ability to express with her voice, she shifted her focus
to singing. She quickly found herself studying voice with acclaimed
Metropolitan opera singer Martina Arroyo, and performing with the
Pro Arte singers under the baton of Early Music pioneer Paul Hillier.
With that group she recorded three albums on the Harmonia Mundi label,
soloed with the school’s reputable Baroque Orchestra, and created
a niche for herself in the new music department as well. It was there
that she started premiering composers’ works, a trend which
continued as she moved on to her graduate studies at the Peabody Conservatory
in Baltimore, Maryland. At Peabody, she studied with soprano
Phyllis Bryn-Julson, collaborated with composer Judah Adashi,
who wrote several works for her to premiere, and formed Duo Encina with faculty member, lutenist
Mark Cudek. As Duo Encina, she sang popular and classical music from renaissance Spain, France
and England along the east coast.
Baltimore continued to be home to Kristen in the following years. Continuing her jobs as church soloist
and voice faculty for the Handel Choir of Baltimore, Kristen played
more gigs as cabaret and lounge singer. She dove wholeheartedly into
the improvising scene, rekindling her relationship with both violin
and piano. But it wasn’t until a pianist had to cancel on short
notice that Kristen found herself with no other option than to take
the stage alone and put her piano training to use. And just like that,
a whole new voice emerged: lower, sultry, immersed in the pleasure
of sharing music, and finding a way to integrate all the earlier influences.
In the years that followed, Kristen continued work on arrangements
for piano and guitar and discovered a new love: songwriting. In the summer of 2004, Kristen was invited to compose the score for
a play being produced in Los Angeles. The opportunity brought her
west, and the ripe singer-songwriter scene kept her there. She has
performed her songs in Hollywood hotspots such as Highland Grounds, the Hotel Café, the historic Pig 'n Whistle, Genghis Cohen and the infamous Viper Room, while working with new musicians on new tunes,
and continuing to hone her recording technique.
Insisting on the best of both worlds, Kristen makes time to return
to the east coast to perform with one of her favorite ever musical projects: The Baltimore Afrobeat Society (B.A.S.) honoring the music of Nigerian
Afrobeat star Fela Kuti.
