Citrine aglow with passion for Celtic music

Citrine is a semiprecious stone that started out as black quartz but through time and forces of nature was turned into a orangish amber-like gem. When Anne-Marie Hildebrandt started looking for a name for her Celtic women's choir, she thought it had possibilities. Even without all that pressure-turning-to-perfection stuff, "orange is my favorite color," she says.

Hildebrandt has been working with Citrine for about 1 1/2 years, and they are releasing their first CD, "Aglow," at a launch party on Friday. The CD features Hildebrandt's passion for traditional Celtic music as well as her contemporary spin on where that music can take you.

"I think there's nothing quite like it in the world. It's hard to describe exactly what our genre is," says Hildebrandt. "Music like this is impossible without the influence of traditional Irish and folk music, but you'll also hear traces of classical, country, rock, acoustic and more. It's very much a product of me — all the influences I've had in my life."

About two-thirds of the songs on the CD are her original compositions; the rest are arrangements of traditional songs such as "Scarborough Fair" and other folk tunes.

"We probably draw the same audience as 'Celtic Women' [the group that is very popular on PBS these days], but I think we have a more earthy sound and definitely less production," she says.

Rather than a traditional choir, with Hildebrandt as conductor, Citrine features her at the keyboards and as lead singer. "But they are not just back-up singers, either. I've done the arrangements so it's like we're doing a duet — me as one singer and them as another singer."

They also play with a band — guitar, bass and drums — as well as the occasional fiddle or penny whistle. So it's a very eclectic mix, she says.

Hildebrandt has been involved in music since she was 3. Her early training was as a classical pianist, but halfway through her studies at Julliard, she feel in love with traditional Irish music. She bought herself a Celtic harp, taught herself how to play it and took her career in an entirely new direction. She studied and taught ear training at Julliard but also became involved with the Manhattan folk music scene.

Now living in Sandy, where she is raising her two sons, Hildebrandt has done a CD and best-selling piano arrangements of inspirational LDS music, as well.

The idea of the choir came about when she met an editor of Hinshaw Publishing, one of the leading publishers of classical and choral music. "I told him I had done some dabbling in choral music in the past. He liked my stuff and asked me to send in more. It was accepted for publication," she says.