Anya Mia - The Arty Crowd

Validate Email

Profile Name / Nickname / Stage Name *

Profile Photo

A square photo of 900x900 pixels or higher recommended, .jpg or .png format, 5mb maximum file size

Voluntary Self-Identification

The Arty Crowd funding sources require inclusion of members who identify as belonging to priority groups encompassing: Indigenous, ethnocultural communities, rural or remote residents, youth, and Francophones (english and french). Hamilton Arts Council further wants to measure its success in attracting members from all the diverse groups we serve in the Greater Hamilton Area arts community, including those who are LGBTQ2S+, and persons with disabilities. We will use the aggregates of the information collected here to measure our success in making The Arty Crowd an accessible and safe space for all who join. We thank the members of the committee from the Safer Spaces Project who advised us in creating an inclusive self-identification process.

Location

All profile holders must live or work in Hamilton, Ancaster, Dundas, Flambourough, Glanbrook, Stoney Creek, Waterdown, Six Nations of the Grand River.

Contact Email Address

This email address is for your Artist Profile. You can choose a different address from your account email, or leave it the same.

Website

Biography / Artistic Statement / Creative Vision

I’m a music and culture writer/journalist and more recently, a singer-songwriter, musician and composer. I also have a degree in French that I like to use now and then.

My writing, both fiction and non-fiction, has been largely fuelled by curiosity — curiosity about the world, the people in it and how things work. I’ve written short stories and novellas, articles, books, web pages, blog posts, marketing materials – in short, everything that I could get my hands on during about three decades of freelancing. Most of that writing revolved around arts, culture, entertainment and travel. Wherever possible, I have attempted to centre overlooked stories and under-served populations.

My writing on culture and entertainment has been cited several times in, and appears in the bibliographies of, academic books and articles, along with mainstream media, including MSN, AnthroSource, (Published by the American Anthropological Association), WQXR in New York City, WLRN in Miami, and the New York Times, among others.

Today, I'm the Toronto City Editor for Ludwig-Van.com, an online magazine devoted to Western classical music, and music in general.

As an independent singer-songwriter, I released my debut EP in 2020, along with singles in 2021 and 2022. Along with vocals, I play keyboard accompaniment and the flute, and combine the influences of a lifetime into pop with a retro flavour. My debut EP garnered favourable reviews in blogs and online magazines, and radio play in indie radio stations, in North and South America and Europe. My next EP, Cold + Blue, will be released in late 2024/early 2025, with two advance singles on Bandcamp as of spring 2024.

I composed my first music for film in 2022-23, for a feature called The Collection Agent by Lategan Media Corp.

I worked as an art model for about 15 years (now retired), and appeared in a handful of art films and performance projects, along with gallery shows, maagzines and art books.

Practice