Miriam Cutler

Miriam Cutler, performer, writer and producer for more than 20 years, began her career as a singer/horn player in various bands that toured the West Coast, including the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.  With the development of her own recording studio, she moved from live performance into composing and has contributed songs to feature films like Bachelor Party, Grandview USA, and Slaves to the Underground, as well as special songs for the children's educational show, Square One on (PBS).  She has scored numerous feature films, TV specials and in recent years has chosen to focus on independent documentaries including many film festival favorites such as Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (Sundance/HBO), Thin (Sundance/HBO), Absolute Wilson (Cinemax/Berlin), China Blue (Toronto /PBS), Lost in La Mancha (Berlin/IFC), Pandemic: Facing Aids (HBO), Scouts Honor (Sundance/PBS), and Licensed to Kill (Sundance/PBS). She co-produced and scored the highly acclaimed documentary One Lucky Elephant, which will be shown on Opera Winfrey's new network, OWN, and The Film Forum in New York City in June.  She has co-produced live jazz albums on Polygram/Verve for Joe Williams, Nina Simone, Shirley Horn, and Marlena Shaw and has produced independently released albums of her own songs and soundtracks.  She has served on documentary film festival juries for the Sundance Film Festival, American Film Institute, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the International Documentary Association and has been a mentor for the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Composer Lab.  Since 1988, Cutler has been resident composer for Circus Flora and featured at Charleston's Spoleto Festival and the Kennedy Center in DC.