Mari Kimura is a prolific violinist/composer, a leading figure in the field of interactive computer music, and most recently known as the developer of a motion sensor system called MUGIC®. Mari is renowned for her mastery of subharmonics—the production of pitches that sound up to an octave below the violin’s lowest string. She has received numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fromm Commission Award, a residency at IRCAM in Paris, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. In recognition of her ground-breaking work, Mari was named “Immigrants: Pride of America” by the Carnegie Corporation.

Mari is widely praised for her dynamic performances as an interpreter, as well as an improviser. She also performed as a soloist with major orchestras such as Tokyo Philharmonic and Hamburg Symphony and gave premieres of many notable works. Mari performs in a wide range of festivals, from classical to well-known computer music and improvised music, in such venues as: ISCM World Music Days, Chigiana Festival in Italy, Spring in Budapest, International Bartók Festival, Festival Cervantino in Mexico, Other Minds Festival in San Francisco, International Symposium of Electronic Arts, New Interface for Musical Expression, International Computer Music, Victoriaville (FIMAV) festival in Canada and ImproTech festivals organized by IRCAM.

In 2020, Mari released MUGIC® commercially. A small WIFI device which can be worn as a ‘wearable tech’ or attached to objects, MUGIC® is intended to eliminate the disciplinary divide and enable new forms of art to emerge and flourish. Today, MUGIC® has been used by musicians, dancers, and visual artists across the globe. MUGIC® is also acquired for educational purpose by noteworthy institutions such as Harvard University, the Peabody Institute at John Hopkins, University of Arts in Berlin, and Juilliard to name a few.

Mari’s recent works focus on human/machine integration using MUGIC®, performing, composing, and commissioning new works. In 2019, Mari commissioned composer Dai Fujikura to write “Motion Notions” published by Ricordi; in 2021, Mari composed “Iron Bird” for cymbal and MUGIC®, for virtuoso percussionist Aiyun Huang, premiered at the Nabla Festival in Italy; she also composed “KISMET” for Decipher Ensemble, premiered at the New Music for Strings festival in Aarhus, Denmark; and most recently Mari composed “Reminischiendo” for pianist Kathy Supové, which has been performed multiple times. Mari has recorded by many labels including SONY international, BIS, Bridge Records, Innova Records and VICTO label.

A Graduate Faculty at The Juilliard School since 1998, Mari was appointed as Full Professor of Music at “Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology” program at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine in 2017, and she received the Faculty Innovation Fellowship from Applied Innovation at UCI. During the Covid shutdown, she enrolled in Executive MBA program at Merage School of Business at UCI, receiving her degree in June 2022. In 2020, Mari was nominated as the Entrepreneur Leader of the Year award at UCI and received the Certificate of Congressional Recognition from the US. House of Representatives and the California Legislature Assembly. MUGIC® is now available at https://mugicmotion.com/.

http://www.marikimura.com

Morales is interested in algorithmic, real time and free time composition. His musical knowledge in folkloric music from Mexico, combined with the classical training made possible to mature new instrumental techniques in Mexican harps, flute and piano. Morales has written music for theatre, dance, movies, TV and radio, and has been commissioned to write music for European and Mexican ensembles like LOOS, Wire Works and the Symphony Orchestra of Guanajuato.

As a performer and improviser, Morales-Manzanares has participated on his own and collaborated with other composers such as Manuel Enriquez, Chris Chafe, George Lewis, Mari Kimura, David Wessel, DJ Spooky, Roscoe Mitchel among others, and participated in International festivals around Europe, US Mexico and Latin-America.

In 1988, he was co-founder of the first computer music studio in Mexico at the Escuela Superior de Musica and in 1992 founder of LIM at the University of Guanajuato. He has organized festivals such as “La Computadora y la Musica” at the National Institute of Fine Arts Mexico, “Callejon del Ruido” in Guanajuato, “Nuevos enfoques y expresiones en composición y tecnología” and Transitio at Centro Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.

Currently he is member of the “Sistema Nacional de Creadores”.

His music can be found in ICMC recordings, Victo label www.victo.qc.ca (Leyendas in colaboration with Mari Kimura) and publications in Computer Music Journal.

https://soundcloud.com/alacrandelcantaro