Paper Music A film concert by William Kentridge and Philip Miller

In the 1980s, he laid the foundation of his formal vocabulary in his first films: black and white charcoal drawings that come together gradually, appearing and disappearing. This technique was the starting point for ongoing work centred around the image and its representation, constantly enriched by other media – drawing, engraving, collage, printing, film and sculpture. Rooted in his country, especially his native city, Kentridge’s work refers to past and present political and social issues.

His long time collaboration with the artist, William Kentridge composing music for many of his films and installations, has gained him international recognition, especially for recent projects including Five Themes at the Tate Modern,  London, the lectureM opera production: Refuse the Hour, which is currently on tour in theatres across Europe  as  well  as  the  multimedia  installation Refusal of Time at Dokumenta 13, Kassel and at The Metropolitan  Museum of Art, New York.

His own sound works have been exhibited at The Venice Bienale (2013) Spier Contemporary (2011).(South  Africa)  and  The  Kaunas  Biennial  (2009)  (  Lithuania).    His  live  performance  of  the  award  –winning,  choral  composition,  Rewind,  a  cantata  for  voice,  tape  and  testimony  has  been  performed  in  London,  at  the Royal Festival Hall, Celebrate Brooklyn, New York, The 62 Centre Williams College, Massachusetts, as  well as The Baxter and Market theatres in South Africa. He has scored numerous soundtracks to film and  television  programs  including  more  recently  his  Emmy  nominated  soundtrack  to  HBO’s  The  Girl.    Other  more  recent  scores  include:  Miner’s  Shotdown,  The  Bang  Bang  Club,  Black  Butterflies  and  Mary  and  Martha directed by Philip Noyce.

Miller is currently an honorary fellow at ARC (The Research Initiative in Archive and Public Culture) at the  University of Cape Town. He is currently completing  his  new  opera,  Extracts  from  the  Underground,  exploring the subterranean sound world of miners in South Africa.

Joanna studied early and contemporary music at the Adelaide Conservatorium, Australia and the Sweelinck Conservatorium, The Netherlands. On scholarships she has also studied traditional Japanese music in Tokyo and traditional dance and music in Java.

In Berlin, Joanna worked as a guest director and performer at the Schaubuehne. Works created there include "My Dearest, My Fairest" with Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola and colours may fade with Esnaola and Rufus Didwiszus. Other works in collaboration with Didwiszus include the solo music theatre piece, "The Scorpionfish", "Who Killed Cock Robin?" with the Flemish vocal ensemble Capilla Flamenca and most recently "LOUIS & BEBE" with the electronic noise musician SchneiderTM. Her work has toured extensively throughout the world.   

In collaboration with William Kentridge and Philip Miller, Joanna features as a singer and performer in "Refuse the Hour" (Avignon Festival and Holland Festival) and "Paper Music" (Carnegie Hall). Opera work includes the coMdirection and choreography of "Eugene Onegin" conducted by Seiji Ozawa and directed by Falk Richter for the Vienna State Opera and Tokyo Opera Nomori. Other collaborators include Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Sasha Waltz, Heiner Goebbels and Thomas Ostermeier. Joanna is appearing in the next two feature films of the Indonesian director, Garin Nugroho.

Joanna’s sound installation "Tom’s Song" for 32 music boxes and 16 LP players has given regular appearances at major international art festivals.

She has lectured in performance at the ECAV Academy for Arts Sierre and the F+F School for Art and Media Design Zurich Switzerland, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore, Adelaide University, Australia and the Academy for Arts in Berlin.