Nadene Pita is a Māori (Ngātiwai/Ngāpuhi), interdisciplinary performance artist and musician based in Los Angeles. Awarded a 2023 Emerging Artist Fellowship by the California Arts Council, she is known for her innovative approach, blending contemporary, intercultural music, and experimental jazz. A multi-instrumentalist, improviser, singer and classically trained violist, Nadene’s work explores her diverse heritage through sound, movement and film.

 

Nadene’s recent solo electroacoustic project, "Wood, Wire and Bone", explores themes of family, nature, lineage, and intersectional feminism, drawing on taonga puōro (Māori instruments), jazz, contemporary movement and video. The track “Strike” addresses workers' unionization, with lyrics rooted in her family's working-class background and activism.

 

Her collaborations span diverse cultural and musical realms, including work with Tibetan monk Lama Tashi Norbu, the late David Ornette Cherry, and the Indigenous Arts Company, Red Sky Performance. These collaborations, along with her engagement with technology and indigenous heritage, inform her unique artistic voice.

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Born in Aotearoa (New Zealand), Nadene immigrated to Australia as a child. She earned her MA in contemporary cross-cultural improvisation from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and has performed across Australasia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, and the Pacific Islands. Her album "Turning Arrows into Flowers" merges South Pacific harmonies, Māori chants, soul, chamber jazz, and experimental sound, reflecting her New Zealand roots and mixed ancestry.