Mira Benjamin (born in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. Th ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

violinist The following lists of violinists are available: * List of classical violinists, notable violinists from the baroque era onwards * List of contemporary classical violinists, notable contemporary classical violinists * List of violinist/compose ...

and researcher. She currently lives in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. She was a member of the

Quatuor Bozzini The Quatuor Bozzini is a string quartet that specializes in new and experimental music based in Montreal, Canada. Since 1999, Quatuor Bozzini has been an original voice in new, experimental and classical music. Their skew is radically contemporar ...

from 2011–2014. Benjamin appears regularly with the London-based ensemble Apartment House, directed by

Anton Lukoszevieze Anton Lukoszevieze (born 1965) is a British- Lithuanian cellist, composer and visual artist. He is the director of the ensemble Apartment House, who are known for their advocacy of experimental and avant-garde music and frequent international pe ...

, and appears on multiple releases by that group on the

Another Timbre Another Timbre is a record label, based in Sheffield and known for its releases of free improvisation, experimental and contemporary classical music. It was founded by television sound recordist Simon Reynell, who also engineers and produces most ...

label, including albums of music by composers such as Martin Arnold,

Linda Catlin Smith Linda Catlin Smith (born 1957 in New York City) is a Canadian composer based out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2005 she became the second woman to win the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music. Smith studied composition and theory with Alle ...

, Jürg Frey, Chiyoko Szlavniks, Richard Glover, and Isaiah Ceccarelli. She is co-director of nu:nord, a community-building project-based music and performing art network that connects practitioners in Canada, Norway and the United Kingdom. She also works with the

London Contemporary Orchestra The London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO), founded in 2008 by Hugh Brunt and Robert Ames, is an ensemble of young musicians whose stated aim is "to explore and promote new music to an increasingly wide audience". LCO staged its inaugural season at ...

and appears on albums including Radiohead's

A Moon Shaped Pool ''A Moon Shaped Pool'' is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released digitally on 8 May 2016, and physically on 17 June 2016 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Radiohead's longtime producer Nigel Godrich. ...

Composer collaborations

Her collaboration with composer James Weeks resulted in an hour-long piece for solo violin called wi''ndfell'', described by the composer as having arisen

...from the image of a violin played by the wind, the bow and strings set in motion without human mediation. ''windfell'' is a high, remote place, a wind-hill: the setting both for a gradual sounding-out of the instrument and a contemplation of the relationship between instrument and player, between sound, space and time, and between humanity and our environment.

She has also worked with

Cassandra Miller Cassandra Miller (born Metchosin, British Columbia, Canada, 1976) is a Canadian experimental composer currently based in London, England. Her work is known for frequently utilising the process of transcription of a variety of pre-existing pieces o ...

, who, making use of Benjamin's 'down-to-earth, no-nonsense gritty focus' wrote ''for mira'', which is an arrangement for violin of a transcription of an acoustic performance of Kurt Cobain singing ''Where did you sleep last night''. Her work with composer Scott McLaughlin began with his string quartet, ''a metastable harmony'' (2012), written for the Quatuor Bozzini while Benjamin was a member, and was furthered with ''The Endless Mobility of Listening'' for violin and electronics. McLaughlin writes of the work:

This piece is based on the same string technique of drone-bowing on open strings to reveal upper partials, with the listening aspect now shifted to using a footswitch to trigger the electronics to ‘capture’ the current partial. The electronics infinitely sustain the briefly isolated partials in an ever-growing ‘tapestry’ of harmony as the detuning changes the environment.

Anna Höstman Anna Höstman (born 1972 in Port Hardy, British Columbia) is a Canadian composer. She currently lives in Victoria, British Columbia. Höstman studied with John Celona, Christopher Butterfield, Gordon Mumma at the University of Victoria and Gary Ku ...

wrote ''Water Walking,'' for solo violin, for Benjamin. The piece is inspired by the

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawato ...

Migration Water Walk from

Matane Matane is a town on the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec, Canada, on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River at the mouth of the Matane River. The town is the seat for the La Matanie Regional County Municipality. In addition to Matane itself, ...

, Quebec to

Madeline Island ''Madeline'' is a media franchise that originated as a series of children's books written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans, an Austrian-American author. The books have been adapted into numerous formats, spawning telefilms, television series a ...

, Wisconsin. Luke Nickel wrote his '' actory' for Benjamin, the first of his scores that play on the use of the performer memory and risk. Benjamin received written score instructions from the composer, which she was permitted to read only once in learning the work.

Writing

* Benjamin, M. (2017). Horatiu Radulescu - HORATIU RADULESCU : Piano Sonatas & String Quartets 1. Stephen Clarke, JACK Quartet. Mode 290. ''Tempo,'' ''71''(281), 100-101. doi:10.1017/S0040298217000298 * Benjamin, M., Nickel, L. (2017). . ''CeReNeM Journal,'' (6) 49-57.

References

External links

*
Sounds Like Now Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benjamin, Mira Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Musicians from Vancouver Canadian expatriates in England Canadian classical violinists Women classical violinists 21st-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers 21st-century Canadian women musicians Canadian women violinists and fiddlers