Head of Sound Art, Professor Miya Masaoka in Multiple Exhibits This Fall

Professor Miya Masaoka, Head of Sound Art, has been invited to the Inaugural Toronto Biennial, which is a new international contemporary visual arts event that stretches across Toronto’s waterfront. She also had a recent exhibition at the Gutenberg Sound Art Academy, located in Mainz, Germany.

Masaoka, born in Washington, is an American artist and composer. Her work explores bodily perception of vibration, movement, and time while foregrounding complex timbre relationships. Of her music, The New York Times said “She is comfortable allowing vast amounts of open space — playing quietly, just a few notes at a time — but within that serene composure she strategically builds a feeling of tensile anticipation."

An acknowledged koto pioneer and a brilliant composer, Masaoka has created works for So Percussion, Bang on a Can, sfSound, Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, Volti, and the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir. Her work has been presented at the Venice Biennale; MoMA PS1, New York City; Kunstmuseum Bonn; and the Caramoor, NY. She is a 2019 Studio Artist for the Park Avenue Armory, and has previously received a Doris Duke Artist Award, Fulbright, and Alpert Award in the Arts.

From Sep. 21 to Dec. 1, Toronto and surrounding areas will be transformed by exhibitions, talks, and performances that reflect the city’s local context while engaging with the most pressing issues of our time. There, Masaoka will participate with fellow artists in TELLINGS: A Post-Human Vocal Concert to explore new modes of vocal production.

According to the website, “Each composition performed in TELLINGS presents increasingly inter-species, inter-organ, feminist, and collaborative notions through the languages of plants, animals, and even human organs not normally associated with having authorship or intention.”

Masaoka’s recent exhibition at the Gutenberg Sound Art Academy in Germany came in conjunction with a master class she gave on sound art. The Academy is a summer school taught by internationally renowned sound artists; this year, it took place in August. There, students had the option of choosing courses taught by either Masaoka or the sound artist Bernhard Leitner.