Mira Benjamin (born in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

violinist The following lists of violinists are available: * List of classical violinists * List of contemporary classical violinists * List of jazz violinists * List of popular music violinists * List of Indian violinists * List of Persian violinists * Li ...

and researcher. She currently lives in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. 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. Activity The Quatuor Bozzini is known for its numerous collaborations with composers of new and experimental music. Since its fou ...

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 perf ...

, 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 composer based in 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 Allen Shawn in Ne ...

, 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 ...

and appears on albums including

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...

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, with a retail release on 17 June 2016 through XL Recordings. It was produced by Radiohead's longtime collaborator Nigel ...

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, 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 Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – ) was an American musician. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and a founding member of the grunge band Nirvana (band), Nirvana. Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establis ...

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

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...

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 itse ...

, Quebec to

Madeline Island Madeline Island (Ojibwe: ''Mooningwanekaaning)'' is an island in Lake Superior. Located in Ashland County, Wisconsin, it has long been a spiritual center of the Lake Superior Chippewa. Although the largest of the Apostle Islands, it is not in ...

, 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 Canadian women classical violinists 21st-century Canadian violinists and fiddlers 21st-century Canadian women musicians Canadian women violinists and fiddlers