Micah Brightwell, a native of Hamilton, NZ who grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, has performed extensively across Canada and the United States. Micah graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in 2006, with an award for Musical Excellence in Violin Performance. She holds a bachelors degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a masters degree from Rice University, where she studied with Kenneth Goldsmith. Ms Brightwell is currently working towards a masters of science in arts administration from the Metropolitan College at Boston University.
As a specialist in contemporary music, she has appeared in concert with the Callithumpian Consort, Ludovico Ensemble, Acoustic Uproar, Collage New Music, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Sound Energy Trio, ensemblenewSRQ, and the Rice University based New Music Ensemble, as well as with members of the Bang on a Can All- Stars, eighth blackbird, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Frame Dance Company in Houston, TX, and Ensemble Modern. Ms Brightwell is equally at home in a classical chamber setting, having collaborated with artists such as Norman Fischer, Ivo-Jan van der Werff, Thomas Jaber, Brian Connelly, and Kenneth Goldsmith. Other chamber music studies include members of the Cavani, Juilliard, Concord, and Cleveland String Quartets.
Ms Brightwell attended the Tanglewood Music Center as an orchestral fellow and a member of the Fromm String Quartet, the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at the New England Conservatory, and the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, in residence at MassMOCA. She has worked with composers Marti Epstein, John Williams, Gunther Schuller, Jo Kondo, Jonathan Dawes, Alvin Lucier, Sean Shepherd, Jeffrey Mumford, Felipe Lara, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Roger Miller, Helen Grimes, David Del Tredici, Pierre Jalbert, Elizabeth Ogonek, Tristain Murail, Christian Wolff, Steven Stucky, and Oliver Knussen.