Michiko Theurer is a multimedia performing artist and conversation-weaver dedicated to creating spaces for shared experience and exchange. As a violinist, she has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Meredith Monk, Mazz Swift, Eighth Blackbird, and members of the Takács and Pacifica Quartets. She is a founding member of the fff ensemble, a Bay-area-based interdisciplinary feminist improv group, and Thruu, a trio of performer-composers, with Barbara Nerness and Julie Zhu. As a PhD candidate in musicology at Stanford, Michiko explores intersections between performance, research, and creative collaboration. Her visual and intermedia art, including paintings and video for her multimedia musical conversation Circling the Waves, frequently reflects her scholarly and performative engagement with music.  She also loves hosting salon-style sharing parties and watching ink bloom on wet paper.

Michiko has served on the faculty of the Colorado Chamber Orchestra Academy and presented master classes and educational events through the Boulder Bach Festival, Amherst College, University of Montana, and East Carolina University. Michiko graduated from Amherst College with majors in English and music and received her MM in violin performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. She holds a DMA in violin performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she studied with Harumi Rhodes and Edward Dusinberre.

Photo by Julie Zhu

Castello, Sonata No. 1 (Matthew Dirst, Harpsichord)

Chris Lortie, Jouska​ for solo violin and electronics

Poulenc, Sonata for Violin and Piano (Rose Lachman, piano)