Meryl van Noie
Meryl van Noie is a ‘technologist’, sound designer and pianist. She experiments with ambiguous textures, sound organisation, musical textures, visuals, animations, found sounds, as well as improvisational structures. She has both classical and jazz formal music training, having completed both B.Mus. (1997) and M.Mus. (2005) degrees at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
She has worked on numerous projects, ranging from classical, jazz, rock and popular music performance, to theatre music and sound design, film scoring, jingle writing, instrument building, and experimental music technology collaborations, whilst always teaching and working as a music industry professional. She is curious about the intersection between music and technology and continues to advance her skills within this field, leading her to acquire skills and knowledge in a number of multi-media gaining the experience and reputation of respected 'music technologist’ in South Africa.
Between 2001 and 2013 she was operations director of the SoundHouse, a unique Not-For-Profit NGO offering children (aged 5-18), university students, music teachers, and adults courses in introductory music technology, while she continued composing and performing as a pianist. Between 2013 and 2019, she was based at the South African College of Music as part technical expert and part-time lecturer in music technology. She taught 1st - 3rd year undergraduate Music Technology courses, which included teaching modules focussing on live performance with interactive technology and visual music. In 2019 she was appointed as a lecturer in Jazz Studies at the UCT, and currently teaches subjects ranging from arranging and jazz history, to ear training and ensemble, incorporating technology into her teaching wherever possible.
On a creative level she is interested in an array of compositional tools, experimenting with hardware and software, delving into the realm of visual music and pushing the boundaries of her own compositional abilities. She has performed at various music and arts festivals in South Africa, and her work featured in a few beyond. Her creative composition works are not designed to be academic by nature, but rather to evolve through experimentation, improvisation and intuition.
