Visiting Artists
Jennifer Beatty
Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Beattie, called a “smashing success” (San Francisco Examiner) and praised for her “warmth” (New York Times) and “exuberant voice and personality” (Opera News), revels in performing everything from traditional to brand-new classical repertoire, as well as engaging in ongoing collaborations with performance, visual, jazz, folk, and theater artists.
Her projects this season include singing the role of Anna in the world premiere of Lembit Beecher’s opera Sophia’s Forest, written for chamber orchestra and electronically-controlled sound sculptures; championing art song written by women & performing with drag queen Cookie DiOrio on her series “The Art of the Heel”; and developing the co-created historical-discovery/ storytelling/electronic, classical and Slovakian-folk-music-based tale of The Black Queen with composer Juraj Kojs, pianist Adam Marks, and collaborators from four countries, which premieres in Miami in the Fall of 2018. Jennifer has been a featured soloist with organizations including The National Opera Orchestra at the Kennedy Center; The Philadelphia Orchestra; Opera Philadelphia; the Columbus Symphony Orchestra; Symphony in C; Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia; the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Brooklyn Art Song Society; the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago; Malibu’s Stotsenberg Recital Series w/ John Musto at the piano; the National Arts Club NYC; Argento Chamber Ensemble at the Park Avenue Armory; JACK Quartet; Aizuri Quartet; Argus Quartet; Lake George Music Festival; and as vocalist-in-residence at the New Music on the Point Festival. Jennifer is a member of two chamber music duos: Albatross, with pianist Adam Marks (artists-in-residence with the Yale college composers); and So Much Hot Air, with oboe/ English horn player Zachary Pulse.
She also serves as co-director of Artists at Albatross Reach, a retreat for the development of weird, wonderful new work and artistic collaborations in northern California.
Juraj Kojš
LJuraj Kojs (Slovakia/USA). Miami New Times described his muscle-powered multimedia Neraissance as “striking and unforgettable,” and MiamiArtzine called his Signals “enthralling and immersive.” Kojs’s commissions include Meet the Composer, Harvestworks and Miami Theater Center.
Kojs published in Organized Sound, Leonardo Music Journal and Journal of New Music Research. Kojs directs Foundation for Emerging Technologies and Arts (FETA). He holds a Ph.D in Composition and Computer Technologies from University of Virginia and taught at Medialogy Aalborg University, Yale University, University of Virginia and Miami International University. Kojs is an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.
Onyx Ashanti
Onyx Ashanti is a programmer, musician and inventor of the Sonocyb, a continually evolving, malleable interface of prosthetic synthesizer controllers that Onyx uses to articulate electronic sound in conjunction with bodily motion.
Growing up playing jazz saxophone in rural Mississippi, Onyx was swept up by rave culture in the 1990s and transitioned to playing wind controller. He collaborated with Marshall Jefferson and Soul II Soul, performing in nightclubs around the world. Onyx’s creative curiosity led him to develop the Beatjazz controller as a music-making device for hands and mouth. Studies of cybernetics and an epiphanic discovery of free jazz ushered in his current devotion to Sonocybernetics.
Onyx uses the construct of Sonocybernetics to feed sonic and technological questions into a network of perpetual self-programming. Calling himself a “patternist” after the work of Afrofuturist science-fiction writer Octavia Butler, Onyx believes in the potential of granular sound to herald a new age of communication. Using the Sonocyb, Onyx translates the gestural body language of his hands, feet, and head into fractal emissions of synthesized sound reminiscent, at times, of the more eccentric, privately released strains of late ’70s and early ’80s French musique concrète.
Nicole Martinez
Nicole Martinez founded The Bridge Miami in 2013 with a vision of offering upcoming artists a venue where they could enrich their potential in the arts and to provide a place where music and arts could co-exist through collaboration. In 2018 Nicole took the next logical step and founded a not-for-profit organization to support this vision and during that same year raised funds to improve the acoustics of the venue and equip with technology necessary it for production and post-production of audio and video recordings of events and individual undertakings.
Founder and Executive Director at The Bridge Miami, Nicole Martinez earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music at Florida State University and pursued further education in Music focusing on engineering and the computer sciences achieving a Master of Music in Electronic and Computer Music at the University of Miami. Her education, amongst some of the best in the country, did not provide a clear path to a viable career as an experimental composer, so instead she used learned skills to excel in production and post-production technologies achieving a successful business and career and business owner of Catalyst Media Training Labs where she offers consulting and sound/video training services to television networks and broadcasters around the globe. As the founder and first source of financial support for The Bridge Miami, she makes it possible for local musicians, performers and visual artists who love and are committed to their craft to create their own career paths towards viable employment in the arts that was not afforded to her upon graduation from esteemed higher learning institutions.
Alex Lough
Alex Lough is: an electronicist; a creative sound designer; a modular synthesizer enthusiast; a very poor dancer; someone who likes to listen to insects and animals and occasionally attempt to communicate with them; a performance artist (whatever that means); a person who possesses several pieces of paper with various academic credentials; a builder of circuits, software, and swimming pools; a fan of performing in unusual spaces and places, particularly those that are unfriendly to electronic devices such as moats, lakes, forests, beaches, cages, and silos; a person involved in an ongoing and deeply passionate affair with sine tones; and a pretty good chef.
Luisa Buitrago
Luisa Buitrago (Colombia) is a producer and artist, exploring the fields of poetry, storytelling, mixed media, and performing arts. Dedicated to enjoying her life inside diverse communities in South Florida, Luisa has collaborated on projects that transform traditional and alternative stages into one-of-a-kind encounters.
Nurturing artists’ needs and building creative spaces for their productions has guided Luisa to joint discoveries and futures, both joyful and imaginative. Her recent projects include “Anna In the Tropics,” a Pulitzer winner play by Nilo Cruz (2023, Miami New Drama), “Papá Cuatro,” a documentary/theatrical Play by Juan Souki (2022, Miami New Drama), “Corporeal Decorum,” contemporary dance and multimedia by Liony Garcia (2022, The Ringling Museum), “National Water Dance,” a community-oriented multi-art celebration by National Water Dance Projects (2022, SMDCAC), “Where Home Is,” a navigational game-inspired sonic journey by Juraj Kojš (2021, Live Arts Miami and Knight Foundation), and “Devotion,” a contemporary dance performance by Rosie Herrera Dance Theater Company (2022 and 2023, ADF and tour). Luisa is honored and excited about her current full time Production Manager position with the Urban Bush Women, where new adventures await.