Kirsten Carey, Miyama McQueen-Tokita (マクイーン時田深山)

Kirsten Carey

Kirsten Carey is a Chicago-based guitarist, composer, shamisenist, and performer. Her work includes the experimental rock band Throwaway, the free jazz / classical / rock hybrid Uroboros Sextet, and a James Joyce-inspired song cycle called The Ulysses Project. Carey’s music frequently challenged genre boundaries, freely blending improvisation, rock, jazz, classical, and theater. Carey’s projects have toured across the USA, Canada, Europe, and Thailand.

Carey’s music has been featured on The One Piece Podcast and Netflix’s House of Ninjas, and she has composed for groups such as the Hinge Ensemble and Chris Sies (principal percussionist of the Calgary Symphony). A 2014 graduate of the University of Michigan’s Jazz and Contemplative Studies program, Carey has performed with artists like Tyshawn Sorey, Elliott Sharp, and Wadada Leo Smith, and opened for acts such as the Sun Ra Arkestra and Deerhoof. You can hear her guitar solo on clipping.’s song “Stab Him in the Throat” for Rick and Morty.

In 2019, the Asian Cultural Council awarded Carey a grant to study Tsugaru shamisen in Japan. 

Carey has been a featured artist at the Co-incidence Festival, the Banff Jazz & Creative Music Workshop, and the International Society for Improvised Music Conference. Her Mature Defense Mechanism with Aaron Edgcomb was released in 2024 on Relative Pitch Records, and her duo album with Tyshawn Sorey, Vociferously Yours, was released in 2025.

Carey has written for publications such as IGN and The Daily Beast, and has worked as sound editor / designer for projects like Magnolia Film’s A Glitch in the Matrix and Disney Jr.’s The Lion Guard.

Some nice press:

“Carey and Edgcomb stretch the expressive possibilities of guitar and drums. Their playing is like being dropped into a debris field. Initially perplexing, the duo’s strength is their ability to work with wrecked components, corralling the shrapnel into something transfixing. ” – the Quietus

“Mature Defense Mechanism is a beautifully uncategorizable and provocative expression by two inventive musicians… It is what one expects from the raw talents and sophisticated skills of its two co-creators.” – All About Jazz

“Carey presents this enticing dichotomy: a raw, unwieldy rock sound that’s technically backed up by jazz degree bonafides.” – Detroit Metro Times

Miyama McQueen-Tokita: マクイーン時田深山

Miyama McQueen-Tokita is a koto and bass koto player and improviser. Fusing Japanese traditions with new ideas that are relevant to the present day, she performs contemporary works, improvisation and original music. She is known as a musician who is free and expressive, with a solid traditional foundation, which has led to collaborations with high-profile artists within Japan and internationally. Miyama has been invited to perform as a soloist in festivals such as the Tokyo Jazz Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival and Mapping Melbourne. She has collaborated as a soloist with numerous ensembles including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Thin Edge New Music Collective (Toronto), Australian Art Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra. Miyama also puts energy into seeking composers from various backgrounds to create music for the koto in styles that have not yet been explored. This has led to the completion of her first solo album “SONOBE”, featuring new and existing works for the koto by composers from all around the world, released in 2020. In 2019 she spent six months in NYC as a 2018 grantee of the Asian Cultural Council New York Fellowship, where she immersed herself deeply in the experimental, free improvised and new music scenes. Since returning from her fellowship, she has focused on improvisation, composition and ensemble leading. Her most recent projects include a series of solo concerts, the Miyama McQueen-Tokita Trio, and the Low Light Art Ensemble, an ongoing large ensemble project led by Miyama, focusing on bringing new and experimental music into new spaces, funded by Arts Council Tokyo. Miyama has been taught by Satsuki Odamura and Kazue Sawai, and has a Masters in music from Tokyo University of the Arts.

即興、現代音楽、オリジナル曲を世界中の様々な場で演奏する、オーストラリア生まれの箏奏者。伝統に基づきながら、ジャンルの境目に関係なく、現代人が面白い、聴きたいと思える音楽に箏を入れていくという考えで独自の音楽を目指す。ソロの他に、様々な楽器とのライブ活動も多く、その自然体で豊かな表現は定評を得ている。世界中から来日する海外のアーティストとの共演に加え、ヨーロッパや北米など海外フェスティバルでの招聘演奏も数多い。ソリストとして出演している音楽祭には、カナダのPowell Street Festival、東京JAZZフェスティバル、Melbourne International Arts Festival、Mapping Melbourne等があり、共演している団体にはVancouver Symphony Orchestra、Australian Art Orchestra、日本フィルハーモニー交響楽団、トロントのThin Edge New Music Collective、Vancouver Intercultural Orchestraなどがある。また、様々な国の新世代の作曲家とのコラボレーションを通して、これまでにない箏のための音楽を作り上げようと前進する。2019年にはACC（アジアン・カルチュラル・カウンシル）の2018年度グランティとして半年間ニューヨークに滞在し、現代音楽、実験音楽、即興音楽シーンに関わり、活動する。2020年にヨーロッパ、アメリカ、オーストラリア、日本の作曲家の作品を収録したソロアルバム"SONOBE"をリリース。NYから帰国後の主な活動として、即興や自作曲、エレクトロニクスを取り入れるソロ演奏、Miyama McQueen-Tokita Trio、そして実験的な現代音楽を新しい形で発表するLow Light Art Ensembleを結成。小田村さつき、沢井一恵に師事、東京藝術大学音楽研究科修士課程修了。東京在住。