The expansive practice of experimental artsit Yaz Lancaster is grounded in queer, DIY, and liberatory frameworks; and it utilizes electroacoustic composition, sampling/collage, improvisatory modes, and consideration of relational aesthetics. They are primarily concentrated on the cultivation of care & intimacy, multidisciplinary and/or post-genre collaboration, and prioritization of community & accessibility.

Yaz performs with their violin, voice, objects, and electronics. Following 2023 debut release AmethYst (people places), their 2025 album AFTER (PTP) navigates dreams, nostalgia, perceptive realities, and intimacies via textural soundscapes, obfuscated sampling, and purposefully degraded production techniques. Yaz frequently performs as versatile “death ambient” and hardcore project medium. (with gg200bpm). Recently, they have been drawn to long-form improvisation, club music, sound design, and production-forward songwriting. As a DJ, they combine percussive and traditional musics of the global south, Black American dance genres, and hardcore kicks in high-energy club sets – and “literally anything” for the radio in fluid narrative-driven mixes.

Yaz has had the opportunity to perform at Lincoln Center, The Shed, MoMA, Roulette Intermedium, Dweller Forever (at Public Records), National Sawdust, Nowadays, Paragon, MASS MoCA, The Poetry Project, The Music Gallery (Toronto) The Lot Radio, Issue Project Room, Trans-Pecos, Intercomm, and a billion other venues in NYC and internationally. As an active collaborator, Yaz has worked with artists including Centennial Gardens (Dreamcrusher + KING VISION ULTRA), claire rousay, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Lisel/Eliza Bagg, Miss Grit, Nyokabi Kariuki, and Vines. They have been commissioned by A Far Cry, Beth Morrison Projects, Black Mountain College Museum & Art Center (with Hub New Music), Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the Minnesota Philharmonic; and Opera Philadelphia – for which they createdPAPER TIGER (2023) with filmmaker Sean Pecknold.

Recent projects include scoring & music directing Asia Stewart’s evening-length Fabric Softener (2024) at The Shed, and new work for International Contemporary Ensemble (2025). Yaz was nominated for a 2025 Gaudeamus Award; and was recently a Pioneer Works music resident (Feb-March ‘25).

Yaz is also a poet & (music/arts) writer, organizer, amateur powerlifter, and member of PTP Vision artist collective. HEAVY HEARTS is a live performance series they created to facilitate & celebrate vulnerability in sharing experimental sonics. They love horror, chess, reality competition television, and hearing people laugh.

***For presenters/programs: their birth year can be listed as 199x, their pronouns are they/them, and they identify as non-binary/trans only, (not female).