'Young's music has this sense of structural rhetoric'
- Jessica Cottis (Conductor)
'Crazy creative and hugely talented'
- Harry Connick Jr (Musician)
Biography
Miriama Young is a Composer and Sound Artist, and Head of Composition at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. She uses music to blend sound worlds and create new sonic colours, and draws from an eclectic array of forms and disciplines. The Herald Scotland describes her as a ‘Renaissance woman’.
Miriama's music spans vocal, instrumental, and orchestral concert works, film scores, interactive sound for dance, electro-acoustic and radiophonic work, and installations. Her practice is grounded in themes of place, memory, and ecology, and the act of composing is driven by a desire to reach for the mysterious and sublime.
In her 30+ years working as a professional composer, Miriama has received numerous awards and accolades for her music. Her sound installations have featured at the Venice Biennale Architettura 2025, and at Vivid Sydney 2013. Her instrumental music work is performed by ensembles across the globe, including the Sydney Symphony Scottish Opera, Omega Ensemble, Syzygy Ensemble, NZTrio, Canberra Symphony, and by pianists Aura Go, Xenia Pestova, and Rolf Hind. Her film score for Speechless attracted awards at film festivals worldwide. Additionally, her radio work is played on NPR (USA), ABC (Australia), and Radio New Zealand. In 2023, Young's album This Earthly Round was released on ABC Classics, and many other works are included on compilation albums, including Strike: New Zealand Percussion Music (Rattle, NZ Classical Album of the Year, 2001); New Zealand Sonic Art (Waikato); and Women of Note II (ABC Classic) and Beneath the Trees (Atoll).
Miriama's scholarly work explores the intricate relationship between the human voice and recording technology. Her monograph Singing the Body Electric: The Human Voice and Sound Technology, was listed in the Times Higher Education Best Books 2015, while chapters and articles on a similar theme are published in the Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies, Leonardo Music Journal, and Contemporary Music Review.
Miriama represented New Zealand at the International World Music Days Festival; and her work is represented by SOUNZ and the Australian Music Centre. Born and raised in New Zealand, she earned her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music (1st Class Hons) degrees from Victoria University of Wellington, NZ, and with a Fulbright Award pursued her MFA and PhD at Princeton University.
Miriama's music spans vocal, instrumental, and orchestral concert works, film scores, interactive sound for dance, electro-acoustic and radiophonic work, and installations. Her practice is grounded in themes of place, memory, and ecology, and the act of composing is driven by a desire to reach for the mysterious and sublime.
In her 30+ years working as a professional composer, Miriama has received numerous awards and accolades for her music. Her sound installations have featured at the Venice Biennale Architettura 2025, and at Vivid Sydney 2013. Her instrumental music work is performed by ensembles across the globe, including the Sydney Symphony Scottish Opera, Omega Ensemble, Syzygy Ensemble, NZTrio, Canberra Symphony, and by pianists Aura Go, Xenia Pestova, and Rolf Hind. Her film score for Speechless attracted awards at film festivals worldwide. Additionally, her radio work is played on NPR (USA), ABC (Australia), and Radio New Zealand. In 2023, Young's album This Earthly Round was released on ABC Classics, and many other works are included on compilation albums, including Strike: New Zealand Percussion Music (Rattle, NZ Classical Album of the Year, 2001); New Zealand Sonic Art (Waikato); and Women of Note II (ABC Classic) and Beneath the Trees (Atoll).
Miriama's scholarly work explores the intricate relationship between the human voice and recording technology. Her monograph Singing the Body Electric: The Human Voice and Sound Technology, was listed in the Times Higher Education Best Books 2015, while chapters and articles on a similar theme are published in the Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies, Leonardo Music Journal, and Contemporary Music Review.
Miriama represented New Zealand at the International World Music Days Festival; and her work is represented by SOUNZ and the Australian Music Centre. Born and raised in New Zealand, she earned her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music (1st Class Hons) degrees from Victoria University of Wellington, NZ, and with a Fulbright Award pursued her MFA and PhD at Princeton University.
