Hailing from Japan, Migiwa “Miggy” Miyajima is a New York City-based composer and producer. She leads the 17-piece Miggy Augmented Orchestra, which released its debut album, ”Colorful,” in 2018 (ArtistShare).
With this group, she brings her life experience to bear on music that evokes both natural beauty and a deep appreciation of our shared humanity. Miyajima also served as the associate producer/conductor of NEA Jazz Master Slide Hampton’s big band.
Furthermore, she worked as the Japanese representative of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, for which she associate-produced two Grammy-nominated albums. Miyajima is the first Japanese big band leader to headline Birdland (in 2017) since the great Toshiko Akiyoshi in 2003.
Formerly editor-in-chief of a travel magazine in Japan, Miyajima devoted herself to music full-time in 2004, at age 30. She led her Japanese big band, miggy+, until 2010, and relocated to New York in 2012. She has been named a 2020 awardee for the New York City’s Women’s Fund For Media, Music, and Theatre; one of 60 inaugural recipients of the Jerome Foundation’s Jerome Hill Artist Fellowships; and a 2015 finalist for the BMI-Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize.
