ABOUT
Natalia is an electroacoustic music artist, composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Seattle, Washington. She studied composition and music theory at the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Musicales (CIEM) in Mexico City and holds an M.A. in Media Arts from the Performing Arts Technology Department at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research focuses on hybrid systems for spatial audio, creating augmented immersive environments that integrate binaural headphone listening, Ambisonics speaker arrays, and natural acoustic sound fields.
Her work has been presented in Mexico and the United States, as well as at Ars Electronica, Festival IZIS (Slovenia), Tonmeistertagung in Düsseldorf, and at ORF musikprotokoll in Graz. Her music has been featured at the International Computer Music Conference, with research published in the proceedings. She has also been commissioned by the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth for wind ensemble works.
Natalia’s artistic practice is closely tied to social narratives. She was the sound designer for Ni Une Más, a multidisciplinary production that brings together music, theater, and dance to share the stories of survivors and celebrate their agency. Her thesis extended this work, focusing on gender violence in Mexico through immersive compositions that use 3D audio and a hybrid audio diffusion system (HADS).
In 2021, she launched her solo project Nati Bu, blending electronic and Latin American genres with acoustic instruments, beats, and synthesizers. As a performer, Natalia plays accordion, sings, and performs on piano in Latin American and jazz ensembles. At the University of Michigan, she has participated in groups like Electronic Chamber Music, the Digital Music Ensemble, and the Creative Coding Collective. She also performs solo, incorporating live electronics and sensor-based technology as core elements of her creative process.