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Pauchi Sasaki

About this Artist

Pauchi Sasaki’s interdisciplinary approach integrates musical composition with the design of multimedia performances and the application of new technologies. A composer, performer, and improviser, she collaborates actively with projects linked to film, dance, theater, installa- tion, site-specific, and interdisciplinary performances. Her compositions involve acoustic, amplified, and electronic instru- mentation performed through ensemble formats influenced by improvisational aesthetics and ethnic musical traditions. Her work also focuses on the develop- ment of real-time interactive music and self-designed instruments using Max MSP and circuit bending. This branch of her work seeks the embodiment of electronic music performance integrating the emis- sion of electronic sounds with corporal expressivity.

She is an active film scorer and “Pauchi Sasaki’s effective scores” (Variety) are featured in more than 30 feature and short films. Pauchi is the recipient of three “Best Original Score” awards from the 30th Festival de Cinema Latino Ameri- cano di Trieste (Italy); Filmocorto, in the 15th International Latin American Film Festival of Lima (2011); and CONACINE, the National Film Council of Peru (2013). She also received the Paul Merritt Henry Prize for excellence in musical composition for stringed instruments (2014), the Ibermúsi- cas Latin American grant for sound com- position with new technologies at CMMAS in Mexico (2015), and the Goethe-Institut’s artist residency in Brazil (2017). In 2016, she was selected by American composer Philip Glass to become his protégé as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Initiative for a one-year mentorship.

Since 2006 she is devoted to the design of immersive multimedia performances and site-specific projects, seeking the interaction between artwork, space, and audience. Her current multi-platform project, GAMA, was presented at the Tokyo Experimental Festival, New York’s Instituto Cervantes, Art Basel Miami week, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart, The Kitchen, Grand National Theater of Peru, Zankel Hall, and Deutsches Theater Berlin, among other venues.

Pauchi studied with composers César Bolaños, Maggi Payne, John Bischoff, Fred Frith, Chris Brown, James Fei, Les Stuck, Laetitia Sonami, and Pauline Oliveros. Her violin style is the result of the exposure to diverse cultures. Her classical violin stud- ies began at age five; she studied Andean music at CEMDUC; classical music of North India with maestro Ali Akbar Khan in San Rafael, California; and Klezmer music with Alicia Svigals in NYC. She holds a BA Degree in Journalism from PUCP in Lima and an MFA Degree in Recording Media and Experimental Music from Mills College in Oakland, California.

Pauchi Sasaki was mentored by Philip Glass in 2016-2017 as part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. This international philanthropy founded in 2002 seeks out gifted young artists from around the world in dance, film, literature, music, theatre, visual arts and architecture and brings them together with artistic masters for a period of creative collaboration.