About

Tristan Kasten-Krause is a bassist and composer living in New York City, whose work enlarges the minutiae of close tones and subtle gestures. As a bassist he has been credited with providing his “low-end authority to vital New York institutions” (the New Yorker) like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and The Whitney Biennial, as well as around the globe at LA’s Disney Hall, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and the Ruhrtriennale.

He has performed with many of the world’s foremost new music ensembles including The Bang on a Can All-Stars, Talea Ensemble, Wet Ink, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Contemporaneous, and Ensemble Signal.

Over the last decade Tristan has worked with forward-thinking artists such as Sigur Ros, Alvin Lucier, Sarah Hennies, Julia Wolfe, Caroline Shaw, David Lang, Ichico Aoba and Steve Reich. He has been featured on Broadway in Gypsy (2025), Justin Peck’s Illinoise (2024) and Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! (2019-2020), and on television in Netflix’s The Witcher, PBS’s Frontline and Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle.

He is bassist for the extreme metal band Scarcity.

As a composer, Tristan has been praised for his “heavenly” (the Guardian) original music. His work has been showcased at Issue Project Room, The Stone, The Hudson Basilica, the Cleveland Uncommon Sounds Project, and the University of Chicago’s Grey Sound series. He has recently been the recipient of the 2024 Copland Fund, and is a 2025 NYSCA grantee. In 2026 his collaborative duo with Sarah Hennies will premiere a new electroaccoustic work at the Groupe de Reserche Musicale (GRM) in Paris. Their debut album The Quiet Sun was released May 2nd on Dinzu Artifacts to critical acclaim.

Tristan has worked & performed with Sigur Ros, Caroline Shaw, David Lang, Alvin Lucier, Sarah Hennies, Jessica Pavone, Steve Reich, Ichico Aoba, David First, Henry Threadgil, Denardo Coleman, LEYA, The Arditti Quartet, Howard Shore

He has been featured in Gypsy, llinoise and Oklahoma! on Broadway, on Netflix’s The Witcher, Amazon’s Mozart in The Jungle, at The Moab Music Festival, The Lincoln Center Festival, The Whitney Biennial, The Ruhrtriennale, Hudson Basilica’s 24 Hour Drone Festival, Montreal’s Suoni per il Popolo Festival, Bang on a Can’s Loud Weekend & Long Play Festivals

He has performed with ensembles such as Talea Ensemble, The Bang on a Can All-Stars, Wet Ink, Ensemble Signal, Ensemble Linea, Argento New Music, andPlay, Contemporaneous, Wordless Music Orchestra