Kristen Elise Lawrence (born March 2, 1976) is an American organist, composer, and vocalist who writes, produces, records, and performs her music based on Halloween history. She coined the term "Halloween Carols" to describe her music compositions that celebrate the autumnal season.
Biography
Early years
Kristen Elise Lawrence was born in Orange County, California and fondly calls Disneyland's Haunted Mansion her second home. After studying piano for five years, she began her organ studies at age 12 with the composer and organist Robert Cummings. During her high school years, she played at church services, arranged music for choral ensembles, and was the featured guest organist at a community Handel's Messiah Sing-along. In 1993 she won a Philharmonic Society of Orange County music competition.
She accepted a music scholarship to Brigham Young University, studying organ under Dr. Parley Belnap and Dr. Douglas Bush, where her experiences ranged from accompanying on the organ in front of audiences of 20,000 at televised live devotional broadcasts, to singing in the Early Music Ensemble, to performing as a can-can dancer in the university's production of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow. She graduated from BYU in 2001 with a Bachelor of Music in organ performance and pedagogy, and taught music in Salt Lake City, Utah and Orange County, California.
Performances
As well as teaching music, playing organ for weddings, funerals/memorial services and church services after college, she arranged and played keyboard in the pop rock band, Checkpoint Charley, recording one album with them and winning the B. B. King’s Battle of the Bands in Hollywood in 2005.
Lawrence was introduced as a "Halloween Specialist" when she played guest keyboards with all-female Iron Maiden tribute metal band, The Iron Maidens, in their October 2010 "Heavy Metal Halloween Show" where she met Iron Maiden keyboardist Michael Kenney and "Eddie" artist Derek Riggs. This was a happy coincidence; Lawrence and Riggs had each been featured in the same Rue Morgue magazine Halloween issue that fall.
In October 2008, Lawrence began performing with Pacific Symphony for the family and school concerts when she was cast as the spooky music teacher/organist in their Halloween Spooktacular, playing on the $3 million C. B. Fisk-built William J. Gillespie Concert Organ in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Lawrence again performed with Pacific Symphony for their 2011 Halloween family program, opening the show with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 as well as demonstrating to the audience how the massive pipe organ is played. Besides performing, Kristen's composition skills were utilized when she was asked to score John Williams' Jurassic Park for organ to play with the orchestra. In addition to her performing with Pacific Symphony, she also performs with the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra and their ensembles when an organist is needed.
A unique kind of music
Music genre
Lawrence's music and lyrics have been called unique and eclectic, colored by the diversified influences of Bach, Tori Amos, Loreena McKennitt, Danny Elfman, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Nightwish. Lawrence incorporates these classical, rock, and folk genres and arranges them into her elegant quirky songs for Halloween and the autumnal season.
Lawrence's original vampire-themed music, with her luxurious "Blood Waltz" and the lush "Vampire Empire", showcases her clear soprano voice. Her use of harpsichord and organ, as well as her somewhat dark subject matter—as in "Sleeping Dust" (a death lullaby) —have afforded her a nod by many as an "honorary goth". And yet, her "Cats in the Catacombs" is pure whimsy in featuring her cat's hisses and yowls as the clever lyrics use words beginning with "cat."
Rue Morgue magazine Music Editor, Trevor Tuminski described Lawrence's music this way: "Lawrence spins ethereal tales with a balance of macabre elements and kid-friendly whimsy ... that give her creations an instantly classic, fun-for-all-ages feel."
Halloween carols
The interest in Halloween and songwriting came together one day when she was playing the organ at a funeral, and the tune to the traditional round, "Ghost of John," wove through her head. This provided the inspiration that began her musical journey; she wrote the first four songs based on Halloween traditions that day when she returned home.