Miranda Ingram Agnew

trumpet player | composer - improviser | educator

Miranda I. Agnew

Bio

Miranda Ingram Agnew is a trumpet player, composer-improviser, and educator based in Brooklyn, NY.
She is deeply invested in building supportive and bold spaces for music-making and lasting connections to others through creative practice. Growing up in the Sonoran Desert, Miranda pursued music as a way to build meaningful relationships with people in her community, and to approach the world around her with passion and curiosity. Her work emphasizes collectivity, experimenting with structure and orchestration in order to strongly center the personalities of her collaborators.

Currently active in New York City, Miranda recently presented her original compositions at All Street Gallery, and at Dizzy’s Club as part of a performance curated by Alexa Tarantino and Cecile McLorin Salvant. She performs with ensembles including the Brooklyn Nomads and the Selendis Sebastian Alexander Johnson Big Band.
In November 2024 she is set to release a debut album as a member of ETM, an ensemble featuring double trumpets, voice, bass and drums. Composed of long-time collaborators, the album features varied compositions contributed by members of the group and strong collective improvisation.

A graduate of the dual degree program between the New England Conservatory and Harvard College, Miranda holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and a Master of Music in Jazz Performance. She was named a Next Jazz Legacy SemiFinalist in 2023, attended the 2017 Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, and was commissioned to perform and record a piece of music for a panel discussion with Terri Lyne Carrington as part of Harvard’s 2021 CompFest.
She has been mentored by and performed with pianist Kris Davis, and has deeply valued the opportunity to study with musicians in various facets of the music scene, including Jason Palmer, Vijay Iyer, Claire Chase, Dominique Eade and Stratis Minakakis.

Miranda has performed and recorded with musicians across the United States and Internationally. She joined bandleader Brittany Karlson, Forbes Graham and Francisco Mela for an improvised performance at Arts at the Armory, and toured Spain in bands lead by bassist David Macchione and guitarist Ella Zirina. She released recordings with friends from her hometown of Tucson, AZ, Boston, MA and Amsterdam, Netherlands in 2018, 2019 and 2021 respectively.

As an educator and administrator, Miranda has supported programming for high school students across NYC through Community-Word Project. She received grant funding to design a free guide for educators centering Women in the Story of Jazz + Creative Music and to curate and facilitate two workshop series for highschool students with guests including Liany Mateo and Naomi Nakanishi.

Miranda continues to draw inspiration from composers including Henry Threadgill and Nicole Michell, and authors including Octavia Butler, whose work envisions and explores alternative futures and worlds. Through her work, Miranda hopes to open space for reflection, and promote exploration of the history and meaning of art-making.

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