Miao Zhao

Biography

Clarinetist, improviser and curator Shuyue Miao Zhao was born in China in 1990 and currently lives in Zurich. She has obtained Bachelor and Master of Music degrees under the tutelage of world renowned clarinetist/musicologist Prof. Charles Neidich from the Juilliard School NYC with full scholarship. In 2015, she moved to Switzerland to further her Bass clarinet studies with Prof. Ernesto Molinari , with a focus on contemporary music, enrolling in Specialized Master Solist diplom at the Bern University of the Arts. During her studies, she worked as an assistant to Prof. Ernesto Molinari. In 2017 She was accepted to HKB / CAP soundart studies to further her passion on electronic musc. Miao is the first prize winner of the 2017 Concours Nicati and Tschumi Preis 2017, since then she has been performing in various contemporary music ensembles and festivals throughout Switzerland. Her interpretation of Brian Ferneyhough's "La Chute d'lcare" with Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain has been released on the NEOS label.

Besides her focus on interpretations of compositions, Miao grew immense amount of interests in free improvisation and its philosophy during her musical career in NYC and Switzerland. She has been active in performing as an improviser in Switzerland and abroad, forming bands such as Noijzu, mm+tt and Secrétariat among many other collaborations. During her last master studies (HKB-CAP/soundart), she expanded her musical set-up, fusing live electronics with amplified instrumental sounds. Since then she has been experimenting with various electronic instruments (no-input mixing, sampler, fx, feedback) in addition to her Bassclarinet/instrumental performances. Her music is released under many international labels such as Buh Records (PE), Noise Bombing (ID), Blaublau Records (ZH/CH), Nomar Records (BE/CH) Daralan Records (TR/DE/CH) and Crystalmine (ES).

Since 2020, Miao has shifted her artistic base from Bern to Zürich, establishing her presence in the Zürich cultural scene and has been invited to perform/collaborate with various groups of local musicians, such as Workoutjazz, ensemble Wirren, Czarnagora, Gamut Kollektiv, Schauspielhaus Zürich and many other renowned individuals in the Swiss experimental music/art scene. In 2020 Miao was invited to join Gamut Kollektiv as part of the artist board. Since 2018 Miao, together with Bern-based visual and sound artist Luis Sanz formed AMARUS, a concert series exploring innovative experimental music from Asia, Latin America and Switzerland. Their goal is to stimulate a collaborative debate between Swiss and international artists on issues of identity, Eurocentrism, and migration in a community that promotes plurality, collaboration, experimentation, and research.

Tag: contemporary, experimental