Kotoka Suzuki
Vancouver B.C. 49° 15' 39.14" N, 123° 6' 50.23" W Arts Music Person
Kotoka Suzuki, born in Tokyo, Japan, is a composer focusing on both multimedia and instrumental practices. She has produced several large-scale multimedia works, including spatial interactive audio-visual work for both concert and installation settings, often in collaboration with artists and scholars from other disciplines.
Her work conceives of sounds as physical moving objects that are visible, constantly transforming into different forms, sizes, and colors, as they travel through the air at different speeds. These objects can be based on real life such as water or an entirely imaginary object.
Suzuki’s work is often produced in relationship to a specific site. The placement of sounds and performers within the site is also a crucial element in her work. The roles of the performer and audience are often expanded so that they become active compositional partners, where they are invited to directly influence the music and visual elements as well as the narrative/musical structure of the work.
Her work has been featured internationally by performers such as Arditti String Quartet, Continuum, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), Pacifica String Quartet and Earplay Ensemble, at numerous festivals such as Ultraschall, ISCM World Music Days, Inventionen, Klangwerktage, VideoEx, International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), and Music at the Anthology (MATA).
Among the awards she has received include DAAD Artist in Resident Berlin (Germany), Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition Prize-Multimedia (France), Robert Fleming Prize from Canada Council for the Arts, George A and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation, and Musica Nova International Electroacoustic Music Competition Honor Prize (Czech).
She received a B.M. degree in composition from Indiana University and a D.M.A. degree in composition at Stanford University.