Mingjia Chen
beijing-birthed, toronto/LA-dwelling musician—vocalist, composer, songwriter, improviser, multi-instrumentalist, teacher, curator—mingjia (MING-juh) performs in solo & collaborative projects across many genres and will not be caught dead in matching socks. recognized for her improvisational & stylistic versatility as a vocalist & her fresh sound as a composer, she has performed at various venues and festivals across canada, china & the united states, & has produced four releases as a band leader.
mingjia was (allegedly—you’ll have to take it up with her mum—) singing much before she could talk, and has been creating music all her life, improvising songs on long distance phone calls to her dad when they were living across the world from each other. however, it was not until she started studying vocal jazz performance at the humber college of music that she really started to put pen to paper, so to speak, composing for herself and her friends.
now, as a solo artist and founder of the tortoise orchestra, her 11+ piece chamber ensemble, mingjia writes music that’s equal parts fantastical & relatable, & performs it with courage & honesty. she is inspired by the works of joanna newsom, milton nascimento, and nina simone, and sets out to explore and celebrate the tender, heartbreaking joy that is ever-present in anything and everything. her 2018 EP feel seen is described by the wholenote as “beautiful, mature and exceptionally coherent”. i care if you listen describes mingjia as “(having) strong command of timbral combinations” and “one to watch”. she is currently working on a double album with tortoise orchestra, to be released in 2022. she has brought her music to national sawdust, td toronto jazz fest, jazz fm 99.1, improvisation fest (hosted by the international institute for critical studies in improvisation), pop montreal, women from space festival, burdock piano fest, sou sou music series, and tranzac piano fest.
a frequent collaborator, mingjia seeks to co-conspire in as many contexts with as many artists as possible! queen of the two-person party, she co-leads electronic duo soft splint with rohan chander, synth pop duo uoou with ryan galloway, galactic sad duo the science of what ? with justin orok, and frequently performs—as a duo, of course—with jazz pianist james fernando. as a performer, she has premiered the works of juliet palmer, david occhipinti and more. she is part of GRAMMY award-winning vocal ensemble roomful of teeth, improvising vocal-movement game ensemble GREX, post-punk band pleasure craft, jazz and free-improv band relay 88, and more.
mingjia feels immensely fortunate to have contributed string, woodwind and vocal arrangements to some of her favorite music by artists such as pusher, andi, anna, pleasure craft, pomes, and emily steinwall. she recently scored harim sanchez and jax ball’s feature length mockumentary film—bonerman. as the recipient of commissions from roomful of teeth, metropolis ensemble, and urbanvessel, her works have been premiered at massachusetts museum of contemporary art, the art gallery of ontario, and brooklyn botanical gardens.
a fierce community leader, mingjia created the secret-santa-style songwriter concert series “not my song” in 2018, each show bringing together 12-16 toronto songwriters of varying styles, scenes, and generations, to cover each other’s music.
mingjia has lectured at the university of toronto, and taught private lessons at the humber college of music, from where she holds a bachelor of music. she is an alumnus of the banff centre’s international workshop in jazz and contemporary music, and a recipient of ontario arts council grants, toronto arts council grants, and the 2018 oscar peterson prize. she is currently pursuing her masters in herding freshmen i mean composition at the university of southern california.
mingjia enjoys drawing, dancing & watching avatar: the last airbender. since the pandemic began she has been taking lots of socially distanced walks & learning how to flamenco. she would love to dance and walk with you.
