Biography
MICHI WIANCKO is a versatile and highly imaginative composer, violinist, and collaborator, whose multi-faceted creative projects and organizational work prioritize artistic discovery, as well as community resilience and social change.
She has been commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, American Lyric Theater, On Site Opera, Experiments in Opera, American Ballet Theater, Boston Chamber Music Society, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, Ecstatic Music Festival, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Camerata Bern, Liquid Music, Accordo, Schubert Club, The Aizuri, Enso, Friction, Jupiter, and Parker Quartets, Ensemble Connect, Sybarite5, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and Metropolis Ensemble. She also composes music for short and feature-length films, commercials, and for her own band, Kono Michi.
Michi’s first opera, Murasaki’s Moon, premiered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in May of 2019. This work was created in collaboration with librettist Deborah Brevoort and director Eric Einhorn from OnSite Opera. Michi is a 2018 recipient of an Opera America Commissioning Grant. Since then, she has composed two more operas: Arkana Aquarium, commissioned by Experiments in Opera and premiered in 2021, and The Stream, commissioned by Baldwin Wallace and the Cleveland Lyric Theater, and premiered in 2022.
“Wiancko played to the brilliant hilt. She tossed off the dizzying demands with extraordinary confidence and focus. Her sound remained shimmering, whether she was walking technical tightropes or sending songful lines aloft.”
Michi co-composed, performed, engineered, and mixed the original score of the film The Mend, profiled by Time Magazine as one of the Top 10 films at SXSW. She has worked closely with the indie rock band Wye Oak, re-imagining their songs for electro-acoustic ensemble. She has also arranged for the band EL VY (comprised of Brent Knopf and The National's Matt Berninger), whom she joined for an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Michi’s arrangements have been performed by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, A Far Cry, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of Brooklyn, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Arkansas Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Harvard Chamber Orchestra, Burlington Chamber Orchestra, Boston Conservatory Orchestra, and The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
A passionate collaborator and performer, Michi has been fortunate to work with artists across a vast musical spectrum: Rhiannon Giddens, Missy Mazzoli, Steve Reich, Silkroad, Yo-Yo Ma, Wye Oak, Emily Wells, PaviElle French, Laurie Anderson, William Brittelle, Daniel Wohl,
Photo credit: Anja Schütz
Emanuel Ax, Mazz Swift, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Xenia Rubinos, Sandeep Das, Judd Greenstein, David T. Little, Gabriela Lena Frank, Yasmin Williams, Vijay Iyer, International Contemporary Ensemble, The Knights, A Far Cry, Alarm Will Sound, Mark Morris Dance Group, and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, among others.
Described by Gramophone Magazine as an "alluring soloist with heightened expressive and violinistic gifts,” Michi gave her violin solo debuts with the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, performed her recital debut in Weill Hall, and released a solo album of works by Émile Sauret on Naxos. She recorded two different projects for Nonesuch Records: a new string quartet composed by Laurie Anderson, and a new work by Steve Reich entitled “Pulse” with the International Contemporary Ensemble, which they performed in Carnegie Hall as part of Steve Reich’s 80th birthday celebration. Her most recent solo album, Planetary Candidate, was released on New Amsterdam Records to critical acclaim.
Michi holds a Bachelor’s degree in music performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Master’s degree from Juilliard, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and the late Robert Mann, respectively. Her early teachers include Sharon Holland and Haroutune Bedelian.
A native of California, Michi now lives with her family in Gill, a small farming community in Western Massachusetts, and directs the summer music festival, artists’ retreat, and community organization, Antenna Cloud Farm. In 2022 she founded The Experimental Institute, a summer intensive for talented performers that centers creative artistry and liberatory practice.
Contact: michimail@gmail.com