Maya Miro Johnson

Between American and European debuts with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble Intercontemporain in 2019 and 2022, respectively, Maya Miro Johnson -- a composer, conductor, instrumentalist, and interdisciplinary artist who considers her work experimental philosophy not constrained to logic and reason -- has created works for violin/prerecorded Gaga class (Johnny Gandelsman of Brooklyn Rider and the Silk Road Ensemble); ensemble/shoes/silent film/bartered objects (loadbang); soprano/ensemble/radios (Toby Thatcher's Zeitgeist, finalist in Beth Morrison Projects' 2021 Next Gen Competition and winner of both Schuman and Surinach Prizes in the 2020 BMI Student Composer Awards in a historical first); electroacoustic metainstrument (with Mekhi Gladden & Drew Schlegel); chamber group/game show host (Sarasota Festival); and more...

Her work has also been featured on numerous recent and upcoming albums, including HOCKET's #What2020LooksLike, Johnny Gandelsman's This Is America, Inna Faliks' The Master and Margarita Project, and the Minnesota Orchestra's Mahler: Symphony No. 8 with Osmo Vänskä and BIS.

Currently in her fourth year of undergraduate studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, where her primary teachers have been Amy Beth Kirsten, Nick DiBerardino, Steve Mackey, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and David Serkin Ludwig, she has also studied privately with Chaya Czernowin at Harvard, with Missy Mazzoli and Kristin Kuster through Luna Composition Lab, and in high school with composer-percussionist-producer Devin Maxwell, her first mentor.  As a conductor, she has received instruction from Vänskä, Marin Alsop, Robert Spano, Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Hugh Wolff, James Ross, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Conner Gray Covington, and Cristian Măcelaru, among others.  She has served as a cover conductor for the Minnesota Orchestra starting in their 2021/22 season.  Summer studies have included the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, BU Tanglewood Institute, soundSCAPE Composition and Performance Exchange, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Fresh Inc. Festival, Miguel Harth-Bedoya's Conducting Institute, Bergen International Festival, & Aspen Music Festival and School's American Conducting Academy as its youngest female fellow ever.

She is currently working on commissions for the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra and Xavier University Choir as part of the Cincinnati May Festival; collaborations with Mexican percussionist Diego Alfonso Jiménez and Norwegian/Swedish soprano Christina Herresthal; and a special multidisciplinary installation/performance for the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia with American visual artist John Dowell and choreographer Zane Booker.  She has formed the performance art duo ~ [pronounced two] with Sarrah Bushara since 2020.

Maya is a vascular compression syndromes warrior and advocates for other victims of medical trauma.


Biography updated 10/2022