Hailing from Japan, Migiwa “Miggy” Miyajima is a New York-based composer, pianist, five-time Grammy nominated producer, and leader of the Miggy Augmented Orchestra. A change-maker by nature, Miyajima aims to improve the opportunity gap between different social groups through her music. Using her signature ‘ensemble music,’ she seeks to highlight the unique colors that all humans contribute to society.
While at MacDowell, Miyajima was at work on a project responding to the spike in anti-Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander (AAAPI) hate crimes. She was working toward a nine-movement suite in a 17-piece jazz-orchestra form titled "A Dream of the Paper-Piano Girl." Through this project, she aims to inspire audiences to choose reconciliation over division in difficult situations. The suite is based on the true stories of her mother, Yuko Miyajima, who was born in Japanese-occupied China shortly after World War II. She practiced piano on keys drawn on a piece of paper, as her family could never afford a piano. She experienced the war’s aftermath, poverty, discrimination, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake, cancer, and surgery, and still says "life is good" sharing her love with others. This project explores these experiences, and also, how she contributed to her daughter's journey—Migiwa’s journey—as a U.S.-based musician.
