AUGMENTED ARTS ACADEMY

MIYAMELO offers instruction in sensor-based performance and live electronics for flutists — from those taking their first steps with real-time electronics to advanced practitioners developing their own interactive systems and audiovisual performance practices.

What We Teach:
Our curriculum spans the fundamentals of performing with live electronics through to interaction design, sensor integration, and the creation of complete real-time audiovisual sets. Lessons are tailored to your specific interests and technical level.

Who We Are:
We bring a rare convergence of artistic backgrounds to our work.
Our teaching emerges from the intersection of jazz and classical training, channeled through an ongoing improvisational practice with live electronics. We approach augmented instruments not as technological add-ons but as extensions of embodied musical thinking—exploring the creative space where breath meets algorithm.

Miya has over 20 years of being a professional jazz and experimental icon in the Tokyo music scene, developing her "Modular Flute" practice that interfaces breath control with modular synthesis. As an international performer, she has bases in Switzerland, England, and Japan, in addition to having over a decade of experience running her own music school in Tokyo. She is a founding member of the Improvisers Machine Orchestra (formerly Tokyo Improviser’s Orchestra). Her practice interfaces both Western and traditional Japanese flutes (nōkan, ryūteki) with modular synthesis, creating work that bridges ancestral traditions with contemporary electronic approaches.

Melo comes from extensive training in classical flute, music technology, and transdisciplinary art. She is currently a doctoral candidate in artistic research at Kunstuniversität Graz and works as a research associate in 3D audio at the Immersive Arts Space, Zürich’s leading arts and technology laboratory. She is also an external advisor for sensor-augmented instrument development at the College of William and Mary (U.S.), former teaching faculty at the University of the Arts Bern Sound Arts department, and has held numerous workshops across universities in the U.S. and Europe. She was selected as a U.S. Fulbright-Swiss Government Excellence scholar and has been nominated for the Swiss Pax Award for new media art. As a professional senior systems engineer, she has created her own algorithmic performance partner, “improvisation machine,” as a method of finding new ways of performing with electronics.

Format:
In-person lessons in Zürich or Tokyo. Online instruction also available.

Contact us:
We’d love to hear about your own practice and how we might work together.

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