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Born and raised outside of Edmonton, Alberta, Kristilyn Robertson, 25, is not one of those piano-songwriters who has been playing since she was young: "I'd like to say that I was a prodigy, playing and writing since I was out of the womb, but that's not the case." It wasn't until the tender age of 17, while a senior in high school, that she finally got the bug to create music: "I first heard Tori [Amos] in 1995 and I wanted to do what she did. I thought it was so cool that someone could be so passionate about something" (This Week, 2002).

For 2 years, Kristilyn trudged her way through Royal Conservatory exams, playing the classical repertoire of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms. After high school, she was accepted to the International Music Academy at the Alberta College Conservatory of Music, in Edmonton, where she studied piano, voice, harmony, and music history, with such professors as Henry Mokken, Geraldine Hawthorne, ad Miriam Mahood. While attending, she began to write music (a former poet, her words eventually lent themselves to melody). "I was such a prolific writer at first. Everything got recorded in my basement through my karaoke machine. I never really thought that I would ever go onstage or into a studio to record."

In 2000, Kristilyn began an undergraduate degree at Concordia University of Alberta. Still taking piano lessons, and later handbells, she continued to focus her talents on music theory and history, and also took classes in piano pedagogy and elementary music, choral methods, music arrangement, and composition. During her stay at Concordia University, the performance and recording aspects had made themselves reality: Kristilyn recorded a CD of original music, entitled The Uncut Version, for her music capstone project with local studio man Tim Senger. The CD came out in early April of 2003 and Kristilyn was kept busy with performances around campus to promote the disc: "This project has been such a huge task, but in the end it'll definitely be worth it. It's my little creation and I can't wait to share it with the world." (March, 2003)

In her fourth year of university, Kristilyn began to take private composition lessons with Dr. John Hooper. Within that year, Kristilyn composed several pieces, including a composition entitled Rondo, for handbells, which was immediately performed by the Concordia Ringers on their spring tour and, later, at the music department's year-end ensembles concert.

She is currently working on her next album.

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