Writings by Miya Masaoka Archives

Peripheries: Harvard University, Center for the Study of World Religions

Inner Sounds: an essay by Miya Masaoka and other artists Peripheries: work that explores the interstices between discourses, traditions, languages, forms, and genres. Harvard University, World Religions a Journal of words and images. Issue 5. Published January, 2023. https://cswr.hds.harvard.edu/publications/peripheries… More »
ASAP JOURNAL: The Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present

January, 2019 John Hopkins University Press Performing History: Swallowing and Spitting, or Drooling (Perspectives from Contemporary Japanese Performing Arts) Miki Kaneda Dossier, Interview: Miya Masaoka + Miki Kaneda… More »
Vaginated Chairs

“The Vaginated Chairs” KunstMusic, Germany, Autumn, 2018 Publisher: Maria de Alvear, Curator/Editor: Lucie Vitkova, Editor: Udo Moll http://www.kunstmusik.org/… More »
Deep and Wide: An interview with Pauline Oliveros

San Francisco Bay Guardian by Miya Masaoka May 29, 2002 Pauline Oliveros, the Bay Area’s godmother of sound, talks about her life’s work and the world it’s helped shape. FOCUS ON YOUR breathing, focus on the sounds of you rummaging for a pencil to mark your calendar. Memorial Day weekend will feature a series of performances… More »
Innovation, Improvisation: An Interview with Cecil Taylor

San Francisco Bay Guardian by Miya Masaoka October 25, 2000 Pianist Cecil Taylor talks about music, magic, and finding his own way. PIANIST CECIL TAYLOR reigns as one of the great innovators of American contemporary music. His performances are uniquely imaginative — visceral experiences for any listener fortunate enough to be in attendance. A master… More »
Keeping it Simple: An Interview with Meredith Monk

San Francisco Bay Guardian by Miya Masaoka June 7, 2000 Meredith Monk talks about making “folk music from another planet.” Meredith Monk is a master at combining forms that simultaneously trigger human memory and emotion, endowing the most simple acts, phrases, and gestures with a sense of discovery. She is a pioneer of what are… More »
Rules of Engagement: An Interview with Thulani Davis

San Francisco Bay Guardian by Miya Masaoka March 8, 2000 Thulani Davis talks about race, gender, murder, and her play, Everybody’s Ruby. THULANI DAVIS IS an acclaimed novelist, librettist, and poet, as well as the winner of an American Book Award for Makers of Saints. She wrote the libretto for the opera X, the Life and Times of Malcolm X, originated… More »
Examining Obsession: An Interview with Laurie Anderson

San Francisco Bay Guardian by Miya Masaoka October 20, 1999 Laurie Anderson talks about technology and audiences beyond the art world. LAURIE ANDERSON HAS carved out a unique position in the American performance landscape. One of the few avant-garde artists to genuinely cross into the mainstream (she fills halls and stadiums worldwide and has seven recordings… More »
Unfinished Music: An Interview with Yoko Ono

San Francisco Bay Guardian by Miya Masaoka August 27, 1997 A conversation with Yoko Ono. YOKO ONO’S MANY YEARS — and considerable success — as a performance artist, vocalist, filmmaker, and object maker have been obscured by her relationship with John Lennon. Since the early 1960s, when Ono entered the avant-garde art world and helped build… More »
Koto no tankyu (Koto Explorations)

Koto no tankyu (Koto Explorations) by Miya Masaoka Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter, Volume XXV, Number 2, Spring, 1996 I am a kotoist and composer, simultaneously navigating the varied worlds of traditional gagaku music (Japanese court orchestral music), new music, jazz, improvised and electronic music. Classically trained and holding degrees in both Western and Eastern… More »