Miya Masaoka

Faculty, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts

Academic Program Affiliation(s): MFA Music/Sound

Biography: Music/Sound. Musician, composer, and sound artist. B.M., San Francisco State University; M.A., Mills College. She has created works for koto, time-based explosives and model trains, laser interfaces, laptop and video, and installations, and written scores for ensembles and mixed choirs. In her performance pieces she has mapped the motions of insects, whose movements trigger the sounds for the piece. These pieces investigate insect culture and behavior, and the construction of race and gender, and extract various data as source material for sound. In other works, she has monitored the physiological response of plants, the human brain, and her own body as renderings for music and sound composition and interactivity. She formed the San Francisco Gagaku Society and has performed her work in varied musical contexts in India, Europe, Japan, Canada, and the United States. Her works have been performed by Volti, Piedmont Choirs, Bang on a Can, and ROVA, and have been presented at Merkin Hall, Venice Biennale 2004, REDCAT Theater, and Ircam in Paris. Commissions include Bang on a Can, Engine 27, Harvestworks, Kathleen Supove, Fellowship; residencies include the Western Front, Headlands Center for the Arts, STEIM, Other Minds, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Wattis Residency. She has received a CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts (2004).
Phone: 845-758-7481
Website: https://www.miyamasaoka.com
Email:
Department: Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts