Kitty Xiao : Associate Artist
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Random Audio Sample: Xphae Drones (quartets: keyboard, percussion) by Kitty Xiao, from the CD Selected Works by AMC Represented Artists, vol. 121. |
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Photo: Owen Marshall
Artist website: http://www.kittyxiaomusic.com/
Kitty Xiao is an Australian composer, electronic
musician and pianist. 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 techno. 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 involves 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, Move Records, and she is the
recipient of the 2022 APRA Professional Development Award (AU),
2021 Denis Diderot [ A-i-R ] Grant, Château d'Orquevaux (FR),
2021 Sounds Australia Export Stimulus Program (AU), 2020 Belle S.
Gitelman Award (US), 2019 Howard Hanson Large Ensemble Prize (US)
and is an Alfred Kitchin scholar (UK). She will be pursuing a
doctorate in Music Composition at Columbia University in New York
City beginning September 2022.
Performance
of her music include: Ensemble Modern (DE), Darmstädter Ferienkurse (DE), Switch~ Ensemble (US), OSSIA
New Music (US), line upon line percussion (US), Sarasota
Orchestra (US), Transient Canvas (US), Panoramic
Voices (US), Orlando Contemporary Chamber
Orchestra (US), Frequency Shift (US), Modular World (US),
Sydeboob (US), Elysium Dance (UK), Brighton Fashion Week
(UK), Slow Rise Music (CAN),
Arts Centre Melbourne's 5x5x5 (AU), Australian
National Academy of Music (AU), Melbourne Composer's League (AU),
Plexus (AU), Clan Analogue (AU); her work being featured on their
album Coordinates. She was nominated for Best Original Score by the 2019
Olympus Film Festival in Los Angeles for her work on the short
film Solus.
Her works have been part of the
Red Note New Music Festival (US), Image/Sound Festival (US), line
upon line percussion Winter Composer Festival (US), Ascension
Arts Festival (US), Yarn/Wire Institute (US), Adelaide Fringe
(AU), Mapping Melbourne Festival (AU), Tilde New Music Festival
(AU), and upcoming at cresc biennale in Frankfurt (DE). Kitty
released her first album Novum
with Nimbus Trio in 2016 with Move Records and
formed the Six Piano Collective and was Artistic Director
of the Six Piano
Project in 2017.
Kitty is resident composer of 2021-2022 Château d'Orquevaux (FR), 2021-2022 International Ensemble Modern Academy (DE), 2021 Darmstädter Ferienkurse (DE), 2021 SICPP at New England Conservatory (US), 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 (US), a Master of Music (Performance) from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (UK), Master of Teaching (AU) and a Bachelor of Music (AU) from the University of Melbourne and attended Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School (AU).
Kitty Xiao — current to March 2022
Awards & Prizes
Year | Award | Placing | Awarded for |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | APRA Professional Development Award (Art Music) | Wnner |
Selected Commissions
Work | Commission Details | |
---|---|---|
the intimacy of strangers (countertenor with live electronics) (2021) | Commissioned by Panoramic Music and Melbourne Composers' League, supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria | |
In flesh (cello with live electronics) (2021) | Commissioned by The ANAM Set, Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) for performance by Hamish Jamieson. | |
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Emphysema feathered his appetites (duos: bass clarinet, marimba with live electronics) (2020) | Commissioned by the Red Note New Music Festival |
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Brought Into Morning (satb choir with string orchestra) (2019) | Commissioned by Panoramic Voices. |
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A city's pounding heart (quartets: percussion, string, woodwind) (2019) | Commisisoned by Image/Sound Festival 2020 |
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Xphae Drones (quartets: keyboard, percussion) (2019) | Commissioned by Yarn Wire Institute 2019 |