Miolina

Miolina:

Mioi Takeda & Lynn Bechtold, Violins

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Praised as “talented and dedicated” (Arts Birmingham) and celebrated for their “aggressive and virtuosic prowess” with “brilliance of sound, technical mastery, and stunning expressivity” (I CARE IF YOU LISTEN), violin duo Miolina has been defining and reshaping the 21st-century duo repertoire since their founding in 2012. Dedicated champions of living composers, including women and minorities, Miolina has premiered over 70 works to date. As a small, vital new music ensemble in NYC, they continue to commission and inspire a myriad of creative works that inspire the human spirit and connect those in our diverse world.

 

A member of New Music USA’s Impact Cohort, the duo has performed across NYC at venues such as Brooklyn College, Culturelab LIC, Gallery MC, Greenwich House, KGB Espionage Museum, LeFrak Hall at Queens College, The Met Museum, The Morbid Anatomy Museum, National Opera Center, National Sawdust, Parsons School of Design, (le) Poisson Rouge, Queens Library, Rockwood Music Hall, The Skyscraper Museum, Spectrum, and Tenri Cultural Institute. Outside of NYC, they’ve performed at SUNY-Albany in NY; Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY; St. Paul United Methodist Church and the University of Alabama in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, AL; Scandinavian Cultural Center in Boston, MA; Rutgers University in Camden, NJ; Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, IL; UC Irvine in CA; Hoover Library in Hoover, AL; Monk Space in Los Angeles, CA; Pensacola State College in FL; Nordic Northwest in Portland, OR; Center for New Music in San Francisco, CA; St. Stephen’s Church in Seattle, WA; Corner Store Arts and Rhizome in Washington, DC; Koncertkirken in Copenhagen, Denmark; Cité Internationale des Arts, La Fine Gueule, and l'Institut Finlandais in Paris, France; Rubinstein Saal at Steinway Haus in Munich, Germany; Koendori Classics and Monten Hall in Tokyo, Japan; and Galleri Sagoy in Malmö, Sweden.

 

In 2025, they premiered Max Lifchitz’s double concerto “Triste, Muy Triste” with the North/South Consonance Chamber Orchestra in NYC, with commissioning funds from NYSCA. In addition, they have performed on series and festivals such as Birmingham New Music Festival, Circuit Bridges, Composers Concordance, COMPOSER Fest, Concrete Timbre, C-Y Series, Electronic Music Midwest, ETHEL and Friends, Infuse Présente, JUMP, NWEAMO, and Sonic Circuits, and have held residencies and masterclasses at CUNY Queens College, The Juilliard School, Rutgers University, Seattle Pacific University, SUNY-Albany, The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, and UC Irvine. Their outreach concerts have taken them to The Alabama School for the Deaf and Blind, the Friendly Kitchen in Concord, NH, and to Goddard-Riverside, Greenwich House, and Southbridge Senior Centers, all in Manhattan.

 

Miolina specializes in violin duo repertoire that highlights the natural beauty of the instrument, both acoustically, and with electronics or multimedia. They collaborate closely with composers on new works, while also uncovering overlooked gems from the past. Upcoming projects include a full series of both adult and children’s concerts at The Skyscraper Museum, with music inspired by architecture and New York City history; the second Miolina-produced Duologue Festival, highlighting some of NYC’s best duo ensembles; continuing concerts at both the New York Public Library and Queens Public Library; and the release of two albums, featuring acoustic and electronic works by a roster of today’s most creative composers.

 

They are grateful recipients of 2024, 2023, and 2022 grants from NYSCA; 2021 and 2015 grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; 2019 grants from Adami Foundation, and the American-Scandinavian Foundation; a 2018 grant from the Queens Council on the Arts; 2017 grants from New Music USA and Japan Foundation NY grant; and 2016 and 2014 grants from New York Women Composers. In 2021, Mioi and Lynn were both chosen to be part of the City Artists Corp, receiving funding from a consortium, including the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, and the Queens Theatre. In 2017, 2019, and 2021, they were artists-in-residence at Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire, and in 2021-22, they had a residency at the Collaborative Arts Research Institute/University of Alabama.

 

Miolina is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Learn more at https://www.miolinanyc.com/ and follow on Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, and Vimeo.

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