CV

Miya Masaoka
455 Central Park West #7-C
New York NY 10025
718-813-4920
miyamasaoka@gmail.com

Works

Miya Masaoka has created a body of work, which encompasses not only notated composition and hybrid acoustic/electronic performance and improvisation on Japanese traditional string instruments such as the koto and ichigenkin, but also instrument building, wearable computing, and sonifying the behavior of plants, brain activity, and insect movement.  She explores sound, gesture, speed, temporality and often her work is imbued with gender, race and social implications.

Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including the Venice Biennale, Park Avenue Armory, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, and many others. She was a Fulbright Fellow to Japan in 2016, and has been the recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award, the Alpert Award in the Arts, Gerbode Foundation Special Award in the Arts, the MAP Fund, and others. Masaoka has taught composition at New York University and in the Music/Sound program at the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College since 2002, and is currently the director of the Sound Art MFA program at Columbia University. In 2017, her installation “Vaginated Ears” was shown as the Kunstmuseum Bonn, and in 2018 she will premiere a work for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

 

EDUCATION

1994
M.A., Music Composition, with honors, Mills College. Principal Teachers: Alvin Curran, David Tudor, Maryanne Amacher

1991
B.A., Music, magna cum laude, San Francisco State University. Principal Teachers: Wayne Petersen, Eric Moe

 

ADDITIONAL STUDIES

2016-Present
Private study with National Living Treasure Hisa Uzawa, Noh; voice and movement, Tokyo, Japan Archaic musical scores, Kyoto School of Traditional Japanese Music.

2015
Traditional Korean Music Workshop, National Gugak Center, Seoul, Korea.

2012-2014
Korean Gayageum, Korean Cultural Center, NEW YORK CITY Arduino Workshops, NYC Resister, additional workshops, 2016.

2011-13
Ichi-gen-kin (one string koto and voice) with Issui Minegishi.

2004
CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technologies), UC Berkeley Max/MSP/Jitter Summer Day School.

1986-2013
Private study, Chikushi and Sawai koto schools (periodic).

1990-97
Gagaku studies with Togi Suenobu, Imperial Court Musician from an unbroken lineage of 1200 years. Masaoka founded the San Francisco Gagaku Society under Togi’s tutelage (koto, kakko drum, shoko perc.).

 

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

2018-Present
Associate Professor of Practice, Sound Art MFA Program, Columbia University School of the Arts; Director of Sound Art MFA.

2016-2018
Assistant Professor of Practice, Sound Art MFA Program, Columbia University School of the Arts; Interim Director of Sound Art MFA.

2015
Columbia University, Adjunct Lecturer, Critical Issues, MFA Sound Art Program.

2002-16
Music/Sound Faculty, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College.

2013
MFA Artist Faculty, Vermont College of Fine Arts.

2012
Lecturer, New York University Department of Music in Arts and Sciences, Music Composition (composition seminar, graduate faculty, individual lessons).

1995
Adjunct Lecturer, San Francisco State University, Japanese American Art and Expression, Ethnic Studies Department.

 

OTHER TEACHING

1995
San Francisco Community Music Center, Individual lessons; composition, counterpoint, Japanese koto.

1994
Instructor: Music Workshop for the Homeless; Tenderloin Reflection and Education, San Francisco, CA.

1982-84
Piano improvisation instruction; private studio practice, Paris, France.

 

ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE

2016-2018
Interim Director, Sound Art MFA, Columbia University School of the Arts: Hired adjunct faculty and artist mentors, coordinated events, including performances and exhibitions.

2000-2003
San Francisco Electronic Music Festival: Initiated and founded the curating committee and the structure of the organization, created and administered a sustainable organization that is still in operation.

1990-1997
San Francisco Gagaku Society.

 

AWARDS, GRANTS, COMMISSIONS

2019
Studio Artist Park Avenue Armory, New York.

2019
Caramoor, Sound Art Installation Commission, New York.

2017-
Collaboratory Fellows Fund, Columbia University: Principal Investigator with Computer Science and Sound Art MFA, School of the Arts; Data for Empathy and Meaning.

2016
Fulbright Award, Core Fellow, Japan.
https://www.cies.org/grantee/miya-masaoka

2013
Doris Duke Artist Award.
http://www.ddcf.org/grants/Grant-Recipients/2013-doris-duke-artist-awards/

2012
French American Jazz Exchange Touring Grant.

2011
The MAP Fund Commission.

2010
Electronic Music Foundation.

2009
Asian Arts Council Award.

2008
Meet the Composer: commission support for work for So Percussion.

2006
New Radio and Performance Commission (Helen Thorington, curator).

2004
Commission, Engine 27/Harvestworks.

2003
Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Commission for the Occasion of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 10th Anniversary.

2003
Herb Alpert Award in the Arts.

2000
California Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award in Music Composition.

1999-2003
ASCAP Annual Award.

1999
People’s Commissioning Project Commission, Bang on a Can All-Stars.

1999
National Endowment for the Arts/Meet the Composer.

1998
NEA Commission for London Gateway Project/The Lab, London, UK.

1997
San Francisco “Art In Transit” Program.

1996, 1997, 1999
San Francisco Individual Artist Commission Grant.

1996, 1998, 1999
Zellerbach Family Fund Grant.

1995
The Goldie Award, Best Musician, San Francisco Bay Guardian.

1995
New Langton Arts, The First New Langton Arts Award.

 

READINGS

2012
American Composers Orchestra’s Jazz Composers’ Orchestra Competition.

 

ARTIST RESIDENCIES

2017-
The Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency Program, Montalvo, CA.

2011
Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Artist in Residence, Warsaw, Poland.

2006
Cal Arts Artist in Residence.

2006
Issue Project Room, Silo on Gowanus, Brooklyn.

2005
Western Front, Vancouver, Canada, and Kunstradio, Vienna, Austria.
http://www.kunstradio.at/BIOS/masaokabio.html

2004
Maison de Dance, Lyon, France, in residence with Lines Ballet.

2004
Jacob’s Pillow Residency, developing work with Lines Ballet.

2003
Wattis Residency, Yerba Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA.

1997
Djerassi Residency, Other Minds, Festival Woodside, CA.

1996-99
STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

TALKS, WORKSHOPS, STUDENT CRITIQUES, PANELS

2018
Darmstadt Internationalen Ferienkursen fur Darmstadt Neue Musik: Panel, Defragmentation, Germany.

2017
Vaginated Chairs, Installation and Talk, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany.

Creating Field Recordings in an Art Context. Communications University of China, School of Music and Recording Arts, Beijing, China.

Re-imagining Sound, Perception and the Vagina, Brooklyn College, Legacies of Pauline Oliveros Symposium.

Swallowing and Spitting History Symposium, Presentations, Installations and panel with Eiko, Brooke O’Harra, Miya Masaoka.

Algo Project, organized by Gene Coleman, Drexel University URBN Center Black Box Theater.

Transducer Festival, Columbia University, Panel on Gender and Technology.

Brown University, Media Studies, Performance, Talk, Studio Visits.

Michigan State University, Talk, rehearsals, performance of Noise Curve.

Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Talk, “Critical Dialogues”

University of Maine, Intermedia MFA, IMRC Lecture Series

2016
New York University, Society of Women in Technology.

Kunitachi College, Tokyo, Japan, lecture.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, PhD Colloquium, Studio Visits.

LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University: Complex Issues series, with Tom Kalin, discussant.

Keynote Speaker, Not Just Gadgets; Interfaces for Empathy and Meaning, New Interfaces for Musical Expression Conference (NIME), Brisbane, Australia.

Sound As Weaponry, on the LRAD (Long Range Audio Device), New York University.

Princeton University, Visiting NJ, Artist, Composers Colloquium Series.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Visiting Artist, Performance, 2009, 2013.

New College of Florida, Artist in Residence, performance, installation.

Cornell University, CT. Invited Artist in Residence, Music Department.

2014
UC Berkeley, Invited Artist.

2012
Indianapolis University, Athens, Greece, Artist Talk.

2011
Colorado Springs University, Invited Artist in Residence

Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia.

2010
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY; with Stanford University ensemble.

Hochschule Luzern, Switzerland, Visiting Composer, talk, lessons.

2009
Oberlin Conservatory, OH. Composer in Residence, directing two ensembles.

2006
Cal Arts Institute, CA. Visiting Composer Artist Residency.

2005
Vancouver Creative Music Institute, Co-Director, week of classes and workshops for improvising musicians, Vancouver, Canada.

2002
Le Centrale, workshops for improvising musicians, Montreal, Canada.

1999
Stanford University Department of Music.

1997
Mills College, CA, Visiting Artist, Department of Music.

MacArthur Foundation Roundtable

 

SELECTED WORKS BY MIYA MASAOKA

2018
Not Yet Untitled: Premiered by the BBC Scottish Symphony with Choir, Glasgow, Scotland, 18 minutes, conducted by Ilan Volkov.

Vaginated Chairs: Installation and discussion with participants and audience, vagina mic-pickup inserts, MoMA PS1.

2017
Vagina Dialogues: Hand-made vaginal inserts with microphone pick-ups inside the vaginas of participants sitting on 12 individually tuned chairs, Fridman Gallery, New York City.

Noise Curve for percussion and ensemble, Michigan State University.

East Greenland: Commissioned by Kathy Supove for solo piano, notation based on the eastern border of Greenland fjords with original maps by woman explorer Louise A. Boyd, made in 1933. Premiered at Barge Music, Brooklyn, NY.

Vagina Sounding Chairs: Park Avenue Armory, New York City. Transducer Festival, Computer Music Center, Columbia University.

The World Is Sound: Part of “Sound Throughout the Gallery” (2017-18), group show (voice and sound in the elevator) curated by Risha Lee, Rubin Museum, New York City.

2016-17
Collaboration duo with Latasha Diggs: The Met Breuer, New York City; NAS Gallery, Tokyo, Japan.

A Line Becomes A Circle, A New Noh Shomyo Opera, with Makiko Sakurai, shomyo and Noh, Ann Moss, soprano, Chris Nappi, percussion, Miya Masaoka, Noh vocal, koto. The Noh Space, Tokyo. Additional Performances: Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia; Roulette, New York.

2016
Feel It, for 20 speakers and spatialized audio; microtonal frequencies distributed to 20 speakers. The Cube Festival, Virginia Tech.

Grounded for 12 speakers. Qubit, East 105th St. Space, Harlem, New York.

2015
A Long Way to F#: Installation for 12 speakers (duration, 12 hours); other versions for 12 days and 12 months. Discreet partials sent to individual speakers, using psycho-acoustic effects, including the Doppler effect, audience members are free to walk, run or weave along the speakers, and their own movement and speed alter their perception of the work. Cook Library, New College, FL.

Network of Energy for chamber ensemble. Premiered at San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.

Four Moons of Pluto (2015-2017) for solo contrabass, written for James Ilgenfritz, The Stone, NYC, Prague, Czech Republic, Berlin, Germany, 15 performances, 3 festivals and recorded on multiple CD labels.

Transparent, Duo for geomungo and janggu, for members of the National Gugak Orchestra. Performed at the National Gugak Theater, Seoul.

Tilt, for Del Sol String Quartet, Other Minds Festival, San Francisco, CA.

Bone Music, for vocalist and “Percussion Dress” (wearable percussion). Look and Listen Festival, Bric House, Brooklyn.

2014
Sound Corridors (noise generators) for large space, computer, handmade faders. Knockdown Center, New York.

2013
Triangle of Resistance, an evening-length work in three movements: The Long Road, for double string quartet and improvising trio; The Clattering of Life for string quartet; Survival for string quartet. Premiered at Roulette, New York City. Video projections by Michelle Handelman. Additional Performance: 2017, National Sawdust, Brooklyn NY.

The Dust and The Noise, for four players. Written for Ensemble Either/Or. The Kitchen, NYC.

Warsaw, for four players. Premiered at Contemporary Art Museum, Laboratorium, Warsaw, Poland.

2012
Balls and Ping Pong, commissioned by pianist Kathleen Supove, with laser interface, responsive software, and Disklavier. Flea Theater, the Whitebox, NYC.

Oracle Bones, collaboration with Pauline Oliveros and Ione. Onassis Theater, Athens, Greece.

2011
A Crack in Your Thoughts, electro-acoustic koto and electronics. Walker Arts Center Museum Gallery, Minneapolis, MN.

LED Kimono (2009-11) for musician, reader, dancer; self-designed interactive computer wearable with hundreds of individually controlled hand-sewn LED’s fashioned into a light and sound-responsive low-resolution cloth monitor. Video projections by Michelle Handelman. Commission, MAP Fund. Additional performances: Siggraph, Yokohama, Japan, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

2010
Off a Craggy Cliff, for two separate, large chamber ensembles with flexible instrumentation, Stanford University (telematic performance) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Jagged Little Pyramid, for large chamber ensemble with flexible instrumentation. Written for Oberlin Conservatory chamber ensembles.

2009
The One String, for ichigenkin (one string koto), installation and performance. City of Women Festival International Festival of Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Butterfly Logic, for four players. Written and Premiered for So Percussion, California State University Fullerton.

2008
Minetta Creek: The Last Living Stream in New York City, multi-channel sound, commissioned by Electronic Music Foundation, Ear to the Earth Festival, Judson Church, NYC, Additional performances, 2011, experimental intermedia, Phill Niblock.

Pond, Commissioned work by Helen Thorington, New Radio and Performing Arts.

Plants Derail Model Train (2006) for laptop, model train, house plant, electrodes, explosive powder. Premiered at Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY.

2007
Pieces for Plants, installation with house plants, EEG electrodes, Interactive Brain Visualization Analyzer (IBVA), computer. “Blur of the Otherworldly” festival, curated by Mark Alice Durant, Center for Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County. Revised as a performance, The Lab, San Francisco; NIME, Frederick Lowe Theater, New York University; Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Homemade Musical Instruments Day.

Traces, solo koto, Dublin Electronic Arts Festival, Solo Performance, Dublin, Ireland.

2006
Things in an Open Field, for solo laser koto, canned fog, performed at Redcat Theater, Los Angeles, CA.

Laser Koto for 1, Festival of Electroacoustic Music, College of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Chironomy, for five players in two groups, streaming audio, and projected video of children hand gesturing. Western Front, Canada (group 1), Radio Kunst, Vienna, Austria. Additional Performances, Merkin Hall, New York City.

2003
For Birds, Planes and Cello (2003-7), written for Joan Jeanrenaud, cello. Commission, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA. Additional performances: Alex Waterman, White Box, NYC; Thomas Ullrich, Issue Project Room, New York.

Koto, a full-length solo koto work with fixed media, commissioned by Alonzo King and Lines Ballet. More than 100 performances, including Venice Biennale, Additional performances; The Luckman Fine Arts, California State University, Los Angeles, Summer Stage, New York City; DanceSpace, Düsseldorf, Germany; Stadthalle, Neuss, Germany; weeklong residency at Jacob’s Pillow; weeklong engagement at La Maison de Dance, Lyon, France.

I Was Walking, I Heard a Sound…for 3 a cappella choirs, 9 soloists; Volti, San Francisco Choral Society (120 singers total), Robert Geary conducting. Commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco) for its 10th Anniversary, made possible by the Wattis Fellowship and the Gerbode Foundation.

2002
The Koto and the Tabla (2002-2005), for 3 players (koto, tabla, cello). Transliterations of koto and tabla technique; commissioned by San Francisco Arts Commission.

2001
Findings, koto and electronics, Purcell Room, Experimental Music Festival, London Musicians Collective, UK.

Thinking Sounds, live version, including audience volunteers for live reading of brainwave data. Beyond Baroque Beyond Music Festival, curated by Brandon LaBelle, Santa Monica, California.

What is the Sound of Naked Asian Men? (2001), for 8 performers and live EEG brain wave data and medical equipment, including heart monitors. Performed by SF Sound Ensemble, Yerba Buena Gardens, commissioned by San Francisco Arts Commission.

Trio Brew, with Reggie Workman, Gerry Hemingway, Jazz Gallery, NYC.

2000
It Creeps Along, for 7 players, koto, and laser responsive interface, commissioned by Bang on a Can, premiered at Miller Theater, New York City.

Koto in the Sky, interactive installation, with lasers beamed across two buildings over an alley triggered with broomsticks from fire escapes, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco.

The Bee Project: Live bees and spatialized audio. Presented at Cellspace, San Francisco, as part of the Electronic Music Festival.

1999
Music for Mouths (1999) for 4 players (4 saxophones) commissioned by ROVA Saxophone Quartet, premiered at Music on the Mountain, CA. Additional performances: Sound Culture, curated by Ed Osborn, Bay Area; Bee Project #1 for 3 players (koto, violin, percussion, amplified live bees), Tokyo, Japan.

Chi-do-ri no sample, Solo performance with koto, voice and electronics, Radio Bremen; Saitensprunge, Redaktion Neue Musik, Bremen, Germany.

Koto improvisation with Dr. L. Subramaniam and ensemble, Orchestra Hall, Chicago.

Live performance and radio transmission, Kunstradio, Vienna, Austria.

Koto-Tronics and Laser Koto, International Electronic Festival, Nove Zamky, Bratislava University, Slovakia.

Ritual, The Last Performance Art Festival, Cleveland, OH; Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC); Rotterdam, Le Centrale Gallery, Montreal, Canada.

1998
Dark Passages, multimedia oratorio with libretto by Thulani Davis, with Japanese American internees and resisters performing; string quartet, Buddhist chanters, slides, projected video. Commissioned by and premiered at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.

Monk’s Japanese Folk Song: Miya Masaoka, koto, Andrew Cyrille, drums, Reggie Workman, bass, CD Release, Knitting Factory.

What is the Difference Between Stripping and Playing the Violin? Performance with large ensemble, The Masaoka Orchestra, and erotic dancers on Market Street in San Francisco’s Red Light district. Masaoka conducted with her invented “Tai Chi Conducting.” Commissioned by Art In Transit, San Francisco. Additional performance in Los Angeles, CA.

Rice Falling, solo performance on ladder, Roulette, Brooklyn, NY.

1996
The Bee Show, with thousands of live bees in glass exhibit hive, video projection, musicians generating buzzing from string instruments, Premiered at the Oakland Museum. Additional performances: The LAB, San Francisco, CA.

1995
Ritual With Giant Hissing Madagascar Cockroaches: Miya Masaoka as nude performer, laser beams, computer and responsive software, Madagascar cockroaches, bug handler, video, hacked burglar alarms, Tibetan bell ringers. Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco. Additional performances, 1997-99 Cyber Theater, Brussels, Le Centrale, Canada, The Last Performance Art Festival in America, Cleveland, OH, V2, USVA, Groningen, The Netherlands.

1994
Unearthed/unbound, for koto solo, and trio with koto, flute and percussion. All compositions on first CD, composed by Miya Masaoka, winner of 3 “Best of 1994 Lists for best CD, including East Bay Express, San Francisco Bay Guardian, SF Weekly.

1992
Spirit of Goze, for koto, piano, taiko, Asian American Jazz Festival, San Francisco.

 

SELECTED RECORDINGS OF MUSIC BY MIYA MASAOKA)

2017
MZM Trio: Myra Melford, Zeena Parkins, Miya Masaoka (Infrequent Seams)

Miya Masaoka: Four Moons of Pluto, performed by contrabassist James Ilgenfritz (Origami Cosmos)

2016
Miya Masaoka: Triangle of Resistance: Four compositions on the Japanese internment), Richard Carrick conducting (Innova)

2016
Anthony Braxton and Miya Masaoka: Duo (Rogue Art)

2009
Duets with Accordion and Koto, Pauline Oliveros and Miya Masaoka (Deep Listening)

2004
Miya Masaoka: While I Was Walking, I Heard a Sound…, for three a cappella choirs and 9 soloists (120 singers), Robert Geary conducting (Solitary B)

Miya Masaoka: For Birds, Planes and Cello, Joan Jeanrenaud, cello (Solitary B)

1998
Miya Masaoka and George Lewis: The Usual Turmoil (Music and Arts)

Miya Masaoka and the Masaoka Orchestra: What is the Difference Between Stripping and Playing the Violin? (Victo Records)

Miya Masaoka: Monk’s Japanese Folksong, with Andrew Cyrille and Reggie Workman (Dizim Records)

1994
Miya Masasoka: Compositions Improvisations, debut solo CD (Asian Improv Arts)

 

SELECTED RECORDED COLLABORATIONS BY MIYA MASAOKA

2013
Humeurs, East West Collective: Didier Petit, Sylvain Kassap, Miya Masaoka, Larry Ochs (Rogue Art)

2012
Granular Modality, with Earl Howard (New World Records)

2009
Ensemble with Audrey Chen, Kenta Nagai, Tomas Day (ECT)

Maybe Monday: Unsquare, with Fred Frith, Larry Ochs, Carla Kihlstedt, Zeena Parkins, Ikue Mori and Gerry Hemingway (Intakt)

2008
Spiller Alley, with Larry Ochs and Peggy Lee (Rogue Art)

2007
Sound Body, with David Toop (samadhisound)

2006
Sequel (for Lester Bowie) with George Lewis (Intakt)

2005
Cloud Plate, with Alex Cline, Kaoru, G.E. Stinson (Cryptogramophone)

2004
Fly, Fly, Fly with Larry Ochs and Joan Jeanrenaud (Intakt)

Klang. Farbe. Melodie, with Biggi Vinkeloe, George Cremaschi, and Gino Robair (482 Music)

2003
Illuminations with Peter Kowald and Gino Robair (Rastascan Records)

2001
Burdocks (Christian Wolff, Tzadik)

2000
Digital Wildlife, with Fred Frith and Larry Ochs (Winter & Winter)

Trancepatterns with John Ingle and Dan Joseph (Dendroica Music)

1999
Global Fusion, Duets with Dr. L. Subramaniam (Erato)

Saturn’s Finger, with Fred Frith and Larry Ochs (Buzz Records)

Guerrilla Mosaics, trio with John Butcher, Miya Masaoka, Gino Robair (482 Music)

1998
Sliding, with Jon Rose (Noise Asia)

1998
Twelve Minor, with Ben Goldberg (Avant)

1997
Toshiko Akiyoshi: Suite for Koto and Jazz Orchestra, work composed for Miya Masaoka (BMG)

1996
Steve Coleman and Mystic Rhythm Society: Myths, Modes, Means (BMG/RCA)

Seance Trio with Henry Kaiser, Miya Masaoka, Danielle DeGruttola. (VEX Records)

Crepuscular Music, Gino Robair, Miya Masaoka, Tom Nunn (Rastascan)

 

MOVING IMAGE (VIDEO, FILM)

2018
Miya Masaoka, The Adventures of the Solitary Bee, Darmstadt Internationalen Ferienkursen fur Darmstadt Neue Musik: multi-Diasporic Sound Art.

2012
Miya Masaoka, Spectacle Exotic (6 min), with found footage found in junk shop in Warsaw, Poland. Premiere: Experimental Intermedia Foundation, New York City. Additional screening: Artist Television Access, San Francisco, 2012.

2000
Miya Masaoka, The Adventures of the Solitary Bee (8 min). Premiered at Artists Television Access, San Francisco. Additional screenings: The Lab, 2001, Redcat Theater, Los Angeles, 2007

 

PUBLICATIONS

2018
Masaoka, Miya (anticipated), “Vaginated Chairs; A Way of Listening,” Kunstmusik, Germany

2015
Masaoka, Miya, liner notes for CD, Duets with Anthony Braxton & Miya Masaoka (Rogue Arts).

Masaoka, Miya, liner notes for CD, Mandorla-2 by Jane Rigler (bruitcollage)

2012
Masaoka, Miya, “From the Ordinary to the Extraordinary,” Anthology of Essays on Deep Listening, ed. Monique Buzzarte and Tom Bickley, Deep Listening Publications; reproduced for “Sound American,” a project of DRAM (Database of Recorded American Music), 2013

2008
Masaoka, Miya, liner notes, Oliveros + Miya Masaoka – Koto Accordion, (Deep Listening)

2007
Miya Masaoka, “Things In An Open Field (for Laser Koto), Proceedings of the 2007 Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME07), New York, NY.

2006
Masaoka, Miya, “Interview with Keiko Uenishi (aka o.blaat),” Critical Studies in Improvisation / Etudes critiques en improvisation, Vol 1, No 3.

2001Masaoka, Miya, Thinking Sound (2001), score. In Between Thought and Sound, edited by Alex Waterman, Debra Singer, and Matthew Lyons, 54-55. The Kitchen (New York, 2007)

2000
Masaoka, Miya, “Notes From a Transcultural Diary, Arcana I: Musicians on Music, ed. John Zorn, Granary Books.

Masaoka, Miya, “Innovation, Improvisation: Interview with Cecil Taylor.” San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Masaoka, Miya, “Keeping It Simple: Interview with Meredith Monk,” San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Masaoka, Miya, “Rules of Engagement, Interview with Thulani Davis,” San Francisco Bay Guardian.

1999
Masaoka, Miya, “Examining Obsession: Interview with Laurie Anderson,” San Francisco Bay Guardian.

1997
Masaoka, Miya, “Unfinished Music: Interview with Yoko Ono,” San Francisco Bay Guardian.

1996
Masaoka, Miya, “Koto no Tankyu” (Koto Explorations). Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter, Volume XXV, Number 2.

1993
Masaoka, Miya, liner notes to “Compositions/Improvisations,” portrait CD (Asian Improv).

 

REVIEWS, ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS

2017
Sharpe, John, “Anthony Braxton/Miya Masaoka: Duo,” All About Jazz, July 28, 2017, https://www.allaboutjazz.com/duo-dcwm-2013-anthony-braxton-rogue-art-review-by-john-sharpe.php

Panken, Ted, “Improv Explorer: Miya Masaoka,” Downbeat Magazine
http://downbeat.com/digitaledition/2017/DB1707/_art/DB1707.pdf

Walls, Seth Colter. “Anthony Braxton/Miya Masaoka,” Pitchfork

Keresman, Mark, CD Review, MZM, New York Jazz Review

Caplan, Lucy, “Sound and Silence: Miya Masaoka Evokes a World of Emotions,” San Francisco Classical Voice, May 12, 2017 https://www.sfcv.org/reviews/roulette/sound-and-silence-miya-masaoka-evokes-a-world-of-emotions

2015
Storm, Richard, “Challenge: What is Music?” review of concert by Miya Masaoka, Sarasota Herald Tribune, http://ticket.heraldtribune.com/2015/11/15/challenge-what-is-music/

Jepson, Barbara, “Ancient Eastern Music Meets Modern Technology,” The Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2015.

2014
Oteri, Frank J. “Miya Masaoka: Social and Sonic Relationships,” New Music Box (a publication of New Music USA) June 1, 2014.

2013
Author, review of While I Was Walking, I Heard A Sound…, The Wire.

Garrett, Charles Hiroshi, “Miya Masaoka,” The Grove Dictionary of American Music (Oxford University Press).

2011
Bakan, Johnathon, “Koto and electronics featured at the Garden of Memory, Oakland,” SF Asian Music Examiner, June 23, 2011.

2010
“Miya Masaoka in Conversation with Vijay Iyer,” All About Jazz.

2009
Gottschalk, Kurt, CD review, Unsquare & Koto Accordion, All About Jazz.

Sewell, Stacey, “Making My Skin Crawl: Representations and Mediations of the Body in Miya Masaoka’s Ritual, Interspecies Collaboration with Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches,” Radical Musicology, Vol 4 (2009), ISSN 1751-7788.

2008
Lockwood, Alan, “Classical Creature,” The New York Sun.

2007
Woodard, Josef, “Koto Tradition Melds with High-Tech Mode,” Los Angeles Times.

2006
“Miya Masaoka.” In Blur of the Otherworldly: Contemporary Art, Technology, and the Paranormal, edited by Mark Alice Durant, Jane D. Marsching, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Center for Art and Visual Culture.

2005
Varga, George, Review of CD For Birds, Planes & Cello, San Diego Union-Tribune.

Kozinn, Allan, “Connecting the Ancient to the Computerized,” New York Times, September 10, 2005.

2004
Minor, William, “Back Home: Koto Master Miya Masaoka,” in Jazz Journeys to Japan: The Heart Within (University of Michigan Press).

2003
NPR Radio interview, performance with Glen Siegel.

WNYC Soundcheck, John Schaefer, interview.

2002
“Miya Masaoka,” in Women and Music in America Since 1900: An Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, ed. Kristine Helen Burns, Greenwood Press.

2001
Robair, Gino, “Women In Electronics,” Electronic Musician.

2000
Gómez-Peña, Guillermo, “One Nude Woman, Thirteen Roaches, and No Arrests.” Dangerous Border Crossers (Psychology Press).

Wong, Deborah, “Listening to Local Practices: Performance and Identity Politics in Riverside, California,” article on Miya Masaoka, in Decomposition: Post-disciplinary Performance, edited by Sue-Ellen Case, Philip Brett, Susan Leigh Foster (Indiana University Press).

Prestiani, Sam. “Border Crossings,” SF Weekly, 75-76.

 

SERVICE TO THE FIELD: JURIES AND ADVISORY PANELS

2017, 2011
American Composers Forum

2016
Gerbode Foundation

2015
Harvestworks, New York

New Music USA

2014, 2010
Alpert Award in the Arts

2014, 2012
Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, USArtists International

MAP Fund Evaluator

2013, 2015
FETA Prize in Sound Art

2013
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Pew Grants

2006
The Stone, NYC (curated the month of November 2006)

2002, 1999
Headlands Center for the Arts, Artist Advisory Board

2001, 1998
The Lab, San Francisco, CA, Artist Advisory Board

2001
New York Foundation for the Arts

1999, 1996, 1995
Montalvo Residency, California

1997, 1996, 1994
California Arts Council

1996, 1995
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Artist Advisory Board

 

LANGUAGES
English: Native
French: Fluent
Japanese: Competent

 

SOFTWARE
Pro Tools, Finale, Ableton Live, Audacity, Final Cut Pro