Instrumentation: 2vn, va, vc
Molly Kien is an American composer currently based in Stockholm, Sweden. She completed her Master’s degree in composition in 2009 at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and holds a Bachelor’s degree in composition from Indiana University in Bloomington. She first came to Sweden in 2002 to study at the Gotland School of Music Composition following studies with Swedish composer Sven-David Sandström at Indiana University.
Her works have been performed by several of Sweden's foremost orchestras and chamber music ensembles. She has been Composer-in-Residence with Västerås Sinfonietta and was commissioned by Konserthuset Stockholm to write a piece for clarinetist and Echo Rising Star Magnus Holmander to be performed throughout Europe during the 2019-20 season.
Awards include first prize in the Alvarez Chamber Orchestra's Plucked from Nowhere competition in London in 2009 and third prize in the Uppsala Composers Competition in 2014. In 2019, she was awarded the Carin Malmlöf-Forssling Composition Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
Kien is very interested in American folk music, and she sings and plays clawhammer banjo, mountain dulcimer and ukulele in the old-time band, Molly Moses and the Country Cousins.
Molly Kien is a member of the Swedish Performing Rights Society (STIM) and the Society of Swedish Composers (FST). She has received scholarships from STIM, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and SWEA.