Olivia Cirisan (b. 2001) is a musician based in Southeast Michigan. Olivia’s work is often collaborative, cross-genre and experimental and frequently makes use of technology and multimedia. Olivia is technical director and percussionist of FLYDLPHN, a mixed chamber sextet based in southeastern Michigan dedicated to the commissioning of early-career composers as well as extensive use of electro-acoustic, multimedia, and improvised performance. She also performs with her duo VIRID, an amorphous percussion and multimedia duo that exists between experimental, contemporary classical and popular music genres. Olivia is a member of the percussion trio Brain Pocket as well.
Olivia was a New Music / Research Artist at the 2024 Percussive Arts Society International Convention, presenting her commission of Ancel Neeley’s “37 Across 39 Down.” She has performed at Ann Arbor’s Top of the Park and Third Place [MusicFest] with her ensembles, and has played in acclaimed venues including Carnegie Hall and MASS MoCA. Olivia has also worked on notable projects such as John Luther Adams’ GRAMMY-nominated recording of “Sila: The Breath of the World,” the premieres of Michael Gordon’s “Field of Vision” and “The Forest of Metal Objects” at the Met Cloisters in NYC, and “A New Age for New Age, Vol. 5.” A collaborator at heart, she has premiered over 35 chamber and solo works by many composers, recently working with Nicole Knorr, Jake Ellzey, Chloe Liuyan Liu, and Jeremy Esquer. Olivia studies Balinese Gamelan as well, and was a 2024 Graduate Fellow in the Center for World Performance Studies at the University of Michigan.
As a composer, songwriter and producer, Olivia is inspired by everything and anything. Having written songs for as long as she can remember, Olivia combines her percussion training, her love of electronic production and her songwriting experience to make music that swims amongst both popular and unconventional idioms. Most recently, this is exemplified by her 2024 record, MIDDLES, as well as her newest record with VIRID, Slow Images.
Currently, Olivia holds her BM and MM in Percussion Performance from the University of Michigan as well as a Certificate in World Performance Studies. She has studied with Douglas Perkins, Ian Antonio, Jeremy Epp, Tom Sherwood, Michael Gould, and Jonathan Ovalle.
