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Miriama Young : Represented Artist

New music that reaches for the Sublime

Random Audio Sample: Time and Tide : Echoes of Sydney Harbour : for brass trio, percussion and fixed media by Miriama Young, from the CD Women of Note


Photo of Miriama Young

Photo: Ishna Jacobs

Artist website: https://miriamayoung.com/

Hailed by The Herald Scotland as a 'Renaissance woman', Miriama Young is a composer and sound artist whose eclectic interests move beyond distinctions of genre. From chamber music to film scores, interactive sound for dance, radiophonic work, installations with live electronics, and concert works for instruments and electro-acoustics, her music embraces paradox: at once bold and ethereal, rooted in physicality whilst serviced by technology.

Indeed, much of Young's music engages new technologies to explore direct physical engagment through sound (interactive installations such as Solstice Lamp for Vivid Sydney 2013); through spoken word (The Prime Cut; 1,000 Kisses; Speak Volumes); using new technologies and bespoke hardware and software to blur body, composer, performer (Grey Ghost, Chatterbox, Titlipur), or to exploit the possibilities of smartphone apps with sound-related iOS apps, including Hushabye.

She has written extensively for voice, including Zen Story for Scottish Opera) and art song (Inner Voices of Blue). Some work electronically manipulates the voice (The Point of Contact, Chatterbox); or explores the sound of human absence (the multi-award winning film score, Speechless - The Polar Realm).

Complementing the creative work, her scholarly research examines the human voice and recording technology, and a recent book on this subject, Singing the Body Electric: The Human Voice and Sound Technology (Routledge) was listed in the Times Higher Education Best Books 2015.

The recipient of numerous awards, Miriama's work is performed and commissioned by ensembles from Norway to New Zealand, including performances by Sydney Symphony Fellows, Scottish Opera, HD Duo, So Percussion, New Millennium Ensemble, Quey Percussion, the Nash Ensemble, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Stroma, the Yesaroun' Duo, Strike Percussion, Now Ensemble, Xenia Pestova, and Bang on a Can MassMoca.

Her installations have featured at Vivid Sydney, New York City's Puffin Room and Gallery 138. Her music has featured on National Public Radio USA, National Radio NZ, Resonance FM London and ABC Australia. She has held artist residencies at Yaddo and MacDowell Colonies.

Dr Miriama Young is a dual-national New Zealand/Australian composer, sound artist and educator based at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, Faculty of Fine Arts & Music. Miriama graduated with a B.A. in History and B.Mus. (1st Class Hons) from Victoria University of Wellington (NZSM). In 2000 she pursued postgraduate work in the United States on a Fulbright Award, and gained her PhD in Music Composition at Princeton University (2007).


Miriama Young — current to January 2019

Teacher/Influence on

Nat Bartsch (2020 - current)

Robert McIntyre (2018)

Selected Commissions

  Work Commission Details
Digital sheet music sample Wood Wide Web 2.0 : for flute and marimba (2023) Commissioned by Duo Aya.
With You, Without You : soprano voice with piano (2022) commissioned by Jenny Wollerman with funding from Victoria University of Wellington for the 21 Female Composers Project
Digital sheet music sample With You, Without You : soprano voice with piano (2022) Commissioned for the 21 Female Composers Project
Wood Wide Web : for flute and percussion with flute loops and audience choirs (2021) Commissioned for Musica Viva in Schools
Borderlands Biophony : for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello, with live interactive audio (2021) Commissioned by Syzygy Ensemble.
Time and Tide : Echoes of Sydney Harbour : for brass trio, percussion and fixed media (2018) Commissioned with the generous assistance of Dr Janet Merewether in memory of her mother, Tempe Merewether OAM.

Analysis & Media

Book: Just Like Us : aspects of New Zealand music / Robert Hoskins, Dugal McKinnon, Norman Meehan & Allan Thomas.