SEMAY WU
Semay Wu (Sē Mā Wo͞͞͞o) is a composer, cellist, media/sound artist and improviser. Her influences are drawn from electro-acoustic experiments and interdisciplinary improvisations in sound, movement and visual worlds. Semay likes to work in between things, and curiously observes what emerges. Her music has enjoyed affiliations with devised theatre, dance, moving images, and installations; and her playing swasy between classical elements and noise.
Current muse is buildding and recording a body of work, involving free improvisations, field recordings, text and drawings. A tie to the graphic score, as vehicles to explore and encourage play.
Semay developed her sound at the heart of Manchester’s musical communities whilst training at the Royal Northern College of Music (with Jenny Curtis & Clive Greensmith). She further trained at the Insititute of Sonology and STEIM in the Netherlands to focus more on interdisciplinary electronics, placing attention on sonic and gestural languages. Her work has invovled DIY electronics, sensor technology, live-capture/fixed visuals and programming throuhg Max MSP software.
The sabbatical year in the Netherlands was generously enabled by Katherine McGillivray’s Get A Life Fund. Semay sincerely acknowledges their support in catalysing and furthering her creative development that has been fundamental to her work today.
Semay also initiated a discussion series based in The Hague in 2016, rebalancing conversations around gender, equality and diversity within electronic music and sound art. New Emergences is a non-profit organisation since 2018.