Miolina
WHO
Photo by Jill Steinberg
Miolina:
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Called "talented and dedicated" by Arts Birmingham, and described as displaying "aggressive and virtuosic prowess" with "brilliance of sound, technical mastery, and stunning expressivity" by I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, violin duo Miolina has been attracting audiences since their inception in 2012. Mioi and Lynn are creating and shaping the violin duo repertoire of the 21st century and have premiered dozens of duos. They have always made the performance of works by women, minority, and immigrant composers a top priority. To date, the duo has had successful performances in NYC at venues such as Brooklyn College, Culturelab LIC, Gallery MC, Greenwich House, KGB Espionage Museum, LeFrak Hall at Queens College, The Morbid Anatomy Museum, National Opera Center, National Sawdust, Parsons School of Design, (le) Poisson Rouge, Queens Library, Rockwood Music Hall, Spectrum, and Tenri Cultural Institute. Outside of NYC, they’ve performed at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY; at 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; Center for New Music in San Francisco, CA; 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; Koendori Classics and Monten Hall in Tokyo, Japan; and Galleri Sagoy in Malmö, Sweden. In 2017, they premiered Victor Kioulaphides' double concerto with the North/South Consonance Chamber Orchestra in NYC, with Max Lifchitz, conductor. In addition, they have performed on series and festivals such as Birmingham New Music Festival, Circuit Bridges, Composers Concordance, COMPOSERFest, Concrete Timbre, C-Y Series, Electronic Music Midwest, Infuse Présente, JUMP, NWEAMO, and Sonic Circuits, and have had residencies and/or presented masterclasses at CUNY Queens College, The Juilliard School, Rutgers University, The University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, and UC Irvine. They have also done outreach concerts at The Alabama School for the Deaf and Blind, the Friendly Kitchen in Concord, NH, and at Greenwich House Senior Center and Southbridge Senior Center, both in Manhattan.
Miolina specializes in violin duo music that employs the natural beauty and sound of the instruments, with or without electronics and video. They enjoy collaborating on new compositions with composers, as well as discovering hidden gems of the past. They recently premiered ‘Mushin,’ a collaboration with choreographer Yukari Osaka and ENTERART, and Sensei Noboru Takaoka and the NYC Kendo Club, inspired by Lynn’s composition featuring the sounds of kendo, sponsored in part by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. They also performed the first in a series of concerts based on graphic and text compositions; and an evolving program of works by all-Scandinavian composers, featuring premieres by composers Mauro Godoy Villalobos, Mansoor Hosseini, Ann Rosén, and Tomi Räisänen, as well as collaborations with many other Scandinavian women and minority composers.
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In June 2017, Miolina was chosen to join New Music USA's Impact Cohort. Support through New Music USA's NYC New Music Impact Fund was made possible with funding from The Scherman Foundation's Katherine S. and Axel G. Rosin Fund. They are also recipients of 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; a 2017 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 chosen for artist residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire.
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Recordings include an album featuring works by composers of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance –‘à la BAMA’ was released in March 2021 on CCR/Naxos. Other albums include their debut album ‘Miolina,’ released in 2018 on CCR/Naxos; 2020’s ‘Le Passager,’ performing Jean-Baptiste Favory’s large-scale work UNISONO V, on label ACEL; and 2020’s ‘Symbolic Gesture,’ performing Flower Cat’s KIRLIAN, on Bandcamp. Stay tuned for new releases soon!
Miolina is a 501(c)3 non-profit and a member of Chamber Music America.
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DOWNLOADABLE BIOS FOR CONCERTS:
Miolina Short Bio
Miolina Long Bio
Photo by Rebecca Sullivan
