Miriama Young
is a composer and sound artist of instrumental and electronic works,
with a focus on the voice. As a scholar, her written dissertation Singing
the Body Electric: The Recorded Voice, the Mediated Body examines
the human voice, the body, and the sound of its transformation through
technology, the first chapter of which was published in the February/April
2006 issue of Contemporary
Music Review.
Miriama
grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, and graduated with a B.A. in History
and B.Mus. (Hons) in Composition from Victoria
University of Wellington (1999). In 2000 she took up a Fulbright
Graduate Award to pursue a Masters at New
York University. Miriama recently completed her doctorate in Music
Composition at Princeton University
in New Jersey. She is currently a Lecturer in Music at the University
of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
Miriama's
compositional work spans a variety of genre and media - from instrumental
and vocal chamber music, to works for the electronic medium, as well
as interdisciplinary collaboration - such as works for radio, spoken
poetry projects, and interactive electronic music for dance. Miriama's
instrumental works continue to be programmed by ensembles in the United
States, the UK, Europe, and New Zealand, including recent performances
by So Percussion, New
Millennium Ensemble, Quey
Percussion, the Nash
Ensemble, New
Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Stroma,
the Yesaroun' Duo, Strike
Percussion, Timetable
Percussion, and Now Ensemble,
and at the Bang on a Can Summer
Institute at MassMoca.
Miriama's
work is recorded on three compilation albums: "Snapdragon"
features on the compilation CD Waiteata
Collection of New Zealand Music, and as a published score by Waiteata
Music Press (New Zealand); "Iron
Tongues" for percussion trio features on Strike’s
album New
Zealand Percussion Music, which was awarded "New Zealand Classical
Album of the Year 2001." An electronic piece featuring her voice
in spoken narrative entitled "Speak
Volumes" is featured on the CD New
Zealand Sonic Art 2000. Miriama is currently preparing her debut
CD, (forthcoming) with support
from Creative New Zealand.
Miriama's
creative work is currently focused on a sonic inquiry of ideas that
surfaced from her theoretical dissertation research on the voice, the
mediated body, and technology. This is realized using her own voice,
as well as the spoken and singing voices of others, in conjunction with
or through technological means. Recent projects in this vein explore
the nexus where oral histories, music and radio collide. This work culminated
in "The Prime Cut,"
a sound documentary for radio woven from interview selections with characters
who had a personal association with the Meatpacking District in New
York, and which revealed the changing fabric of the area. The show aired
on NPR, Radio
New Zealand, and Resonance
FM (London). Projects in the radio medium continue, and include
collaborations with poet Cathy
Bowman. "1,
000 Kisses" opens a set of sound-poem works
that incorporate the poet’s spoken voice with electronic sound-scape.
Other recent
projects include an inter-media collaboration with New York City-based
dancer/choreographer Sara Baird (Anemone
Dance Theater) and video artist Lee
Whittier. The piece, entitled "Titlipur"
used custom-made interactive real-time technology and Max MSP software.
"Titlipur"
featured in Anemone’s show at the Puffin Room, NYC in May 2004,
and as an installation at Gallery 138 in Chelsea, NYC in February 2005.
This past fall she presented a second collaboration project with Anemone,
a work for voice and harmonium entitled "Souffle,"
also performed in New York City.
In July and August 2004 Miriama took up a residencies at Yaddo
artist colony in Saratoga Springs, New York and at The
MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire.
Miriama
is currently working on her debut album, a radiophonic sound piece with
poet Cathy
Bowman, and a solo interactive piece for her voice.