Bio

Kyoko Kitamura is a vocal improviser, composer, producer, and multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY, committed to music as a social activity and community anchor. She convenes collectives, creates audience-participatory events, workshops, and festivals to foster social bonds.

Currently, she co-leads Siren Xypher Collective with Melanie Dyer and Mara Rosenbloom, the performing and producing entity behind Brooklyn Free Spirit Festival. Kitamura also co-leads an interdisciplinary trio with dancer-choreographers Rachel Bernsen and Levi Gonzalez, and the collective quartet Geometry (with Taylor Ho Bynum, Joe Morris, and Tomeka Reid), as well as being a frequent performer in William Parker’s ensembles.

For over a decade, Kitamura collaborated extensively with composer Anthony Braxton, featured in many of his performances and releases including the operas Trillium E and Trillium J. Kitamura directed and co-produced the 11-hour recording GTM(Syntax)2017, the first complete realization of Braxton’s vocal‑driven Syntactical Ghost Trance Music system. She also created the acclaimed 2023 documentary film Introduction to Syntactical Ghost Trance Music which DownBeat Magazine calls “an invaluable resource for Braxton-philes.”

A sought-after vocalist for multidisciplinary projects, Kitamura’s credits include Matthew Barney’s Secondary, the projects (waves) and AIR for Audra Wolowiec, and Rachel Bernsen’s Novel Formats.

Kitamura has balanced dual careers as a media professional and a musician. Formerly a journalist in television and print media, she later directed communications and served as executive director for Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Foundation. Kitamura has taught and led workshops at Dartmouth College, The New School, Arts for Art’s Visionary Youth Orchestra, Kaufman Music Center’s Face the Music, and most recently served as visiting faculty at Bennington College 2022—June 2025. Kitamura studied piano with Jane Carlson at Juilliard Pre-College, and privately studied counterpoint and Schoenberg harmony with Paul Caputo.