Carson Kievman

Carson Kievman (December 27, 1949 – October 12, 2021) was an American composer, director and producer and an innovator of contemporary classical music. His works were noted for their originality, skill, and frequent integration with music theatre and contemporary opera. Kievman’s artistic focus ranged from avant-garde music and operatic works in the 1970s to symphonic works in the 1990s, along with orchestral, choral, solo instrument and chamber music. He established the SoBe Institute of the Arts, a performing arts institute in Miami Beach, Florida, from which he produced contemporary music events as well as his earlier operas in a chamber setting. Early life and music education Kievman was born in 1949 in North Hollywood, California to an artistic family; his mother was a jazz singer, his father an actor, an uncle a violist. He pursued interdisciplinary studies at California Institute of the Arts (BFA/MF1977), studying music composition under James Tenney and Earl Brown and earning two BMI composition awards (1974, 1976). Before graduating, he found an audience for his works at European music festivals including Darmstadt (1974, 1976, and a retrospective concert in 1992) and Tang