Masaoka, Miya
- Stacey Sewell
Extract
(b Washington DC, 1958). American composer, performer, and sound artist. Masaoka’s work is stylistically diverse, drawing on gagaku (Japanese court music), new music, improvisation, jazz, and electronic music. She has performed or collaborated with artists from a range of musical traditions, including Fred Frith, Pharoah Sanders, Dr. L. Subramaniam, the Berkeley Symphony, and the Cecil Taylor Orchestra. Masaoka was the 2004 recipient of the Alpert Award in the Arts. She is married to George Emanuel Lewis.
After receiving her BA in Music from San Francisco State University, Masaoka attended Mills College (MA 1994), where she studied with alvin Curran . She performs on koto (Japanese zither), which she studied with Seiko Shimaoka and Suenobu Togi. She later formed and directed the San Francisco Gagaku Society. Although she began playing traditional koto, Masaoka has since moved into developing her own playing techniques.
Since the 1980s Masaoka has developed interfaces to extend the ...
