Pamelia Kurstin

Who is Pamelia Kurstin?

Pamelia Kurstin is a notable American theremin player. She has performed and recorded with notable artists including David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Sebastian Rochford, Otto Lechner and Simone Dinnerstein, and was instrumental to the final design of Robert Moog's Etherwave Pro Theremin, for which she was the primary test musician. Pamelia has made various film, television and radio appearances, most notably on Saturday Night Live, and in the 2004 documentary Moog, and her music for theremin orchestra featured on CNN.

Pamelia has also presented talks at events such as TED. Her background as a jazz musician on the upright bass has led to develop a "walking bass" theremin technique. She was based in New York until 2005; she now lives in Vienna.

She was first introduced to the theremin during production of the album Into the Oh in 1999 by Luaka Bop duo Geggy Tah – singer/writer Tommy Jordan and keyboardist Greg Kurstin. Kurstin recorded Gymnopedie in 2000 as a member of the theremin/keyboard duo called "The Kurstins" with her then-husband, Greg. Her first solo album Thinking Out Loud was released in 2007 on John Zorn's Tzadik label. She is also a member of Barbez.