Soprano Kirsten Ashley Wiest has worked with Ben Johnston, Jeffrey Holmes, Denis Kolokol, Ellen Reid, and Christopher Rountree, among others. She has sung as a soloist with wild Up new music collective, the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, UCLA John Cage Symposium, kallisti chamber opera, UCSD's Palimpsest, CalArts New Century Players Ensemble, and Chapman University’s New Music Ensemble. She has also performed with The Industry - LA’s home for experimental opera, San Diego Pro Arte Voices, the Metroplex Opera Company in Dallas, and the Texas 'Lone Star' Ambassadors of Music.
In 2014, Wiest was enrolled as a DMA student at UCSD under the instruction of Grammy award-winning soprano Susan Narucki. In addition, she holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts and a BM cum laude from Chapman University’s Conservatory of Music, where she was awarded the New Music Award for her outstanding commitment to the performance of contemporary works.