Kirsten Nash In 1993, after years of playing with countless musicians and bands across Canada, Kirsten finally bit the bullet and went solo with a soulful jazz-pop excursion titled “Bridging the Gap” a critically acclaimed album the debuted in the spring of 1995 and was distributed in Canada by Page Publications.  Written and performed by Nash, “Bridging the Gap” successfully melds inspirations from Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell to Charles Mingus and Sting, with Kirsten’s own musical vision and expression into an album that remains definitively Kirsten Nash. The road to “Bridging the Gap” had been a steady musical progression winding from San Francisco where Kirsten was born.  Raised on Vancouver Island, it was not until after completing jazz studies in college that Kirsten left Nanaimo to pursue a successful touring career across Canada. As well as playing locally in Vancouver in various blues, rock and R&B bands, including a decade long stint with the legendary “R&B Allstars”, and tours with Long John Baldry and Alfie Zappacosta, performing in music videos for both.  Kirsten then won the 1988 CARAS award for “Reed Player of the Year”, signaling her as a prominent saxophonist on Canada’s West Coast. Having worked as a session singer and saxophonist since then in Vancouver, Kirsten has collected an extensive list of credentials in commercials and has jammed with artists such as Spencer Davis, John Waite, Boz Scaggs, Stephen Stills, Jeff Healey and the Mellencamp band.  Her varied album credits include working on tracks from Cher and Rita MacNeil to Amos Garrett, from the Powder Blues to the Choirboys and the Barenaked Ladies. In 1996 Kirsten shifted her direction to focus on a lifetime dream and wrote the first draft of her rock opera, “Alice in Modernland” The year 1997 was devoted to establishing the contacts needed to garner serious Broadway interest in “Alice in Modernland”.  It culminated in a very successful workshop in New York, directed by London’s Steven Dexter.  The cast included members of the Broadway productions of “Rent”, “Smoky Joe’s Café” and “Little Shop of Horrors” and two performances were staged for feedback from members of the theatre industry, who gave the workshop an extremely positive response.  Kirsten then flew home to do the necessary work to make the book and music ready for stage production. “Alice in Modernland” had its World Premier, directed by Kirsten Brandt, at the Sledgehammer Theatre in San Diego in October 2000, earning the San Diego Union Tribune’s “Critic’s Choice” for the length of it’s run.  Ms. Nash then took time out to finish her next work, the spiritual odyssey of “The Bird and the Waterfall”. “The Bird and the Waterfall”, once again directed by Ms. Brandt, was work-shopped and filmed at the Kay Meek Theatre in West Vancouver for a sold-out three night run in July of 2005.  The film was made into a promotional DVD, and continues to find it’s way as a new media in the entertainment industry. For the past few years, Kirsten has been preoccupied with the joys and demands of her family while every so often hitting the stage to sing as she did recently with Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers at the Red Robinson theatre.  While continuing to explore musical ideas, she has been painting and writing short stories and prose, and is currently at work on her first novel.  Her prose poem, “Farm Rules”, was accepted for publication by the Red Berry Press and will debut in their inaugural bi-annual issue of the “Red Berry Review” in spring of 2009.