Loading details…
Loading details…
Artist
At four years old, Kristin began playing piano, and before long, was writing her own songs. And from there on, she never stopped, taking classical piano and voice lessons through her teenage years and then picking up the guitar somewhere along the way. Eventually music became a way of life for her. Hoffmann was accepted to the Juilliard School of Music’s pre-college program and began studying opera, secondary composition and classical composition; she became influenced by Samuel Barber and French Impressionists like Ravel. “Opera training really molded my voice into what it is today. Once you study classical voice you can go anywhere with it,” says Hoffmann, who also found inspiration in popular artists like Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel and Radiohead. She soon realized she could marry the two, creating her own unique blend of classical and contemporary music. "I got a lot more joy out of creating my own music and having it touch people. It was just an unmatchable feeling.” After Juilliard, Kristin spent a year at NYU and her songwriting evolved as she combined her classical roots with accessible pop sensibilities. She was briefly signed to Capital Records, but ended up self-releasing her first album Divided Heart, which she not only wrote, but co-produced, engineered and recorded. All the while, Kristin continued to hone her performance skills with a residency at Café Vivaldi in Manhattan’s West Village. Along with playing some 200 shows, selling 3,000 copies of Divided Hear