The refrain of Krystal J. (Grant) Folkestad’s middle school poetry assignment was “I am God’s child, an artist of music and words.” She has woven together these strands of art throughout her career as a composer-pianist: leading a musical theater club at a senior center in Brooklyn, New York, studying Cuban poetry while majoring in piano performance and Spanish at Vanderbilt University, composing the libretto and score for her dissertation chamber opera at Stony Brook University. She lives with her husband and child in Birmingham, Alabama, where she teaches music and writes poetry to meditate on the meanings of places and daily life.
Her projects include rarely performed composers.
She performs in ethical and secondhand clothing.
She supports farms and parks.
Ars Arvole 