Miya Masaoka resides in New York City and is a classically trained musician, composer and sound artist. She has created works for koto, laser interfaces, laptop , video, installations and written scores for ensembles, chamber orchestra and mixed choirs. In her performance pieces she has mapped the movement of insects whereby their movements trigger the sounds for the piece. These pieces investigate plant and insect behavior and sonify the data of these living things in realtime, mapping data to sound. Her new release, For Birds, Planes and Cello, was written for former Kronos Quartet cellist Joan Jeanrenaud, and has received international critical acclaim. Her work has been presented at IRCAM, NIME, Harvestworks and a multitude of other esteemed venues. For BAPLab, Miya will be performing "Open Fields" for Laser Koto.