Miya Masaoka is based in New York City (born 1958, Washington, DC) and is an American composer, musician, and sound artist active in the field of contemporary classical music and experimental music. Her work encompasses contemporary classical composition, improvisation, electroacoustic music, inter-disciplinary sound art, sound installation, traditional Japanese instruments, and performance art. Her full-length ballet was performed at the Venice Biennale 2004.
She has been awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (2021), the Doris Duke Award (2013) and the Herb Alpert Award (2004), and a Fulbright Fellowship for advanced research for Noh, gagaku and the ichi gen kin. She is an associate professor in the MFA Visual Arts Department at Columbia University, and the director of the MFA Sound Art Program.
She often performs on a 21-string Japanese koto (musical instrument) koto, which she extends with software processing, string preparations, and bowing. Masaoka has created performance works and installations incorporating plants, live insects, and sensor technology.