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Photo: Owen Marshall

Kitty Xiao is an Australian composer, electronic musician and pianist. Kitty's works are fascinated by the physicality of sound, the movement of sound, and interaction with sound as a living object. Central to her aesthetic is a search for unity in contemporary culture, human psyche, art and machine. Her music moves between the world of concert music to performing as an electronic artist of experimental noise and dance music. Working closely with analog synthesis has greatly informed her attraction to the visceral qualities of sound, sensation and spontaneity in music. Both practices often explore high polarities and extremities, process and perception, vulnerability and imperfection. Her music inovles electro-acoustic and acoustic compositions, and live modular sets which explore the relationship between sound and physical embodiment, the space it occupies, its tactility, and intensity. Her music is represented by the Australian Music Centre and she is the recipient of the 2020 Belle S. Gitelman Award, the 2019 Howard Hanson Large Ensemble Prize, and is an Alfred Kitchin scholar.

Kitty is founder, composer and pianist of Nimbus Trio and released her first album Novum in 2016 as a represented artist of Move Records label. In 2017 Kitty formed the Six Piano Collective and is Artistic Director of the Six Piano Project . The same year she launched the concert series NoiseSense.

Kitty's music has been performed in Australia, Europe and the United States. Performances include: Sarasota Orchestra (US), Switch~ Ensemble (US), OSSIA New Music (US), line upon line percussion (US), Transient Canvas (US), Panoramic Voices (US), Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra (US), Odds and Ends (US), Frequency Shift (US), Modular World (US), Modulate TV (UK), Elysium Dance (UK), Brighton Fashion Week (UK), Australian National Academy of Music (AU), Melbourne Composer's Leauge (AU), Arts Centre Melbourne's 5x5x5 (AU), Plexus (AU), Panoramic Music (AU), Australian Art Orchestra's CMI (AU), Six Piano Project (AU), Nimbus Trio (AU), Tilde New Music Festival (AU), Gamelan DanAnda (AU), the Augmented Trumpet (AU), Clan Analogue (AU); her work being featured on their album Coordinates. She was nominated for Best Original Score by 2019 Olympus Film Festival in Los Angeles for her work on short film Solus.

Her works have been part of the Image/Sound Festival (US), line upon line percussion Winter Composer Festival (US), Ascension Arts Festival (US), Yarn/Wire Institute (US), Adelaide Fringe (AU), Melbourne Festival (AU), Mapping Melbourne Festival (AU), performed at Eastman School of Music (US), Illinois State University (US), University of Texas (US), Stony Brook University (US), Hatch Recital Hall (US), Kilbourn Hall (US), Holley Hall (US), The Museum of Human Achievement (US), The Blanton Museum of Art (US), Deakin Edge (AU), Melbourne Recital Centre (AU), University of Adelaide (AU), Royal Naval College (UK).

Kitty is resident composer of 2021/2022 Château d'Orquevaux (FR), 2021/2022 International Ensemble Modern Academy (GER), 2021 International Darmstadt School (GER), 2020 line upon line percussion (US), 2020 Red Note New Music Festival (US), 2019 American Composer's Orchestra Earshot program (US), 2019 Yarn/Wire Institute (US), 2017 Tilde New Music Academy (AU), 2016 Keep Composer's Weird (US), 2016 Australian Art Orchestra CMI (AU).

Kitty holds a Master of Music (Composition) at the Eastman School of Music, a Master of Music (Performance) from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, a Master of Teaching (Music Education) and a Bachelor of Music from The University of Melbourne, and attended Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School.

Kitty Xiao — current to June 2021