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born in Salamanca/Spain, lives in Madrid.
After completing
her M.A. in art history, she specialized in contemporary art, publishing
two books on architecture and urbanism. Her interest in the avantgarde
led her to a special focus on performance art, video art and minimal music,
but above all on the relationship between art and life and between artist
and audience. Following her encounter with the musician Llorenc Barber
- a turning point in her artistic life - she founded the improvisatory
group Taller de Música Mundana with him. When she was appointed
director of the music library of the Complutense University of Madrid
(1982-1989), she began to combine these activities with studies in ear-training,
alto saxophone and percussion. She soon discovered the unexpected and
precious potential of her voice and decided to rigorously explore it to
its maximum consequences.
Since 1983, she has
been doing research on the voice and vocal music in traditional musics
and this has propelled her to use the voice not only for singing and speaking
but also as a wind and percussion instrument built into the body. All
of the above constitutes the basis for her own integrated musical language.
Through solitary
and systematic experimentation she developed a series of unique and personal
vocal techniques which she subsequently catalogued for her own use - a
necessary measure inasmuch as many of these techniques were invented by
her and thus unprecedented . By naming and ordering them, according to
timber and register, she was able to create a codified body of resources
available to her, in her work and for collaborations with other composers.
The first fruits of this minutious task appeared in the sound poetry of
the Flatus Vocis Trio and in her work with the french composer Jean-Claude
Eloy.
From 1983 to 1993,
she studied bel canto with various professors in order to combine vocal
techniques traditionally considered incompatibles.
In 1987-1988, she studied traditional vocal techniques with the
japanese singer Yumi Nara. In 1988, she learned mongol harmonic singing
with Tran Quáng Hai at the Museum of Man in Paris. This technique
requires the simultaneous production of two vocal sounds: the fundamental
note as drone and the melody made by choosing among its harmonics.
Since 1988 she has
combined short workshops in France and The Netherlands with longer periods
in India where she studies Dhrupad music and singing with different members
of the eminent Dagar family.
As a result of this, her work was greatly
enriched by training in the subtle perception of microtones and harmonics
and therefore in their vocal production, determining factors in her composition.
It should be pointed out that while the
form and structure of Fátima Miranda's work bears no resemblance
to music of those cultures, it is essentially related if only in its use
of microtones, dynamics, rhythm and various and refined forms of singing.
Above and beyond its cultivated virtuosity it comes from a slow and conscious
digestion of life itself: of her travels, her diverse studies, errors,
contradictions, playfulness, discoveries, provocation, sense of humor
and of course a demanding discipline divested of all rigidity, intention
and exhibitionism.
Currently she is working with german artist Hans Peter Kuhn on
a project called Daily Drones.
Fatima
Miranda
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