Miya Masaoka

Along with just a small number of additional musicians, Miya Masaoka succeeded in introducing the koto to the world of avant-garde music. Predicated on the Western Coast in the first ’90s, she 1st got noticed on her behalf collaborations with Pharoah Sanders, Wadada Leo Smith, and Henry Kaiser, as well as for extremely original mixed press installations and site-specific shows. By the past due ’90s, she experienced turned mainly to free of charge improvisation, expanding the options of her device with an electric user interface. Her most high-profile activity was her involvement in Fred Frith’s trio task Maybe Mon. A string device with a brief history arching back again to the 11th hundred years, the koto may be the device most closely connected with Japanese custom. Masaoka, a Japanese American delivered in Washington, D.C., got her initial connection with it through a cousin surviving in Japan. Through the 1980s, she researched various institutions of Japanese koto music for the U.S. Western world Coast. Even while, she attained a B.A. in music from SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA State College or university in 1990 and a master’s level in music structure from Mills University four years afterwards, learning with Alvin Curran. As a result, her background combined traditional music and modern classical composition. Obtaining involved deeper in to the music picture after 1994, she started by staging particular projects. Bee Task #1 (Might 1996) included the usage of an on-stage beehive, the humming noises of bees getting mixed instantly using the music through the performance. WHAT’S the Difference Between Stripping & Playing the Violin?, a representation on the notion of sex-related occupations needed a rock and roll/traditional combo, two spectacular dancers, and a tape component made of remarks about them from different people. It had been performed on the street part in SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA in March 1997 and fascinated much media interest (the efficiency was later released on Compact disc by Disques Victo). Quickly, everyone searching for an amazing touch to increase their ensemble began to contact Masaoka. She made an appearance on information and on-stage with Steve Coleman, George Lewis, Ben Goldberg, as well as others, even while liberating her personal albums. The 1996 solo Compact disc Compositions/Improvisations and her 1997 trio program Monk’s Japanese Folk Track (with Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille) founded her as a significant improviser. She made an appearance as a single artist and in a variety of little improv group contexts in lots of festivals in European countries and THE UNITED STATES, including the Event International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. Since 1997, she’s made an appearance alongside Fred Frith and Larry Ochs in the trio Probably Monday.