Kina Muir | Accompanist

Kina Lyn Muir is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, live performer, private music instructor, and an enthusiastic volunteer and activist who has been based in the Portland Metro Area for the past 20 years. Known for her many years of being a bandleader for groups such as Twisted Whistle, Kozmic Tilt (A Tribute to Janis Joplin), and Kina Lyn Divided By Zero, as well as countless guest spots and album credits as a session musician, Kina has recently toured in the western U.S. as well as Central America.

Kina was born in Oakland, CA, and spent most of her early childhood in Eureka before moving to Sweden. Her family returned to the U.S. and moved to Santa Barbara, CA during her teenage years, where she was able to access a treasure trove of musical opportunity. She spent three consecutive summers touring Italy playing cello with a chamber music festival, the last also attending an Oberlin workshop, as well as touring the UK with her Madrigals Singers choir, before testing out of high school to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for cello performance.

Kina grew up a UCC pastor’s kid, immersed in volunteer and social justice work inside and outside the church, and has continued that work in her adult life, be it through a variety of established organizations, rag tag mutual aid groups, or programs which she has launched herself. In 2014, she founded Flash Grub, “a secular, non-partisan organization dedicated to the organization of mass-participation in community solidarity, and encouraging general kindness in the world”. She has also volunteered with and supported Rose Haven for many years, where she now serves on the DEIJ Committee.

In 2015, Kina had the honor of composing and recording the soundtrack for ‘How Are the Children?’, a documentary film and curriculum created by the UCC Palestine-Israel Network focused on the lives of Palenstian children in Israeli military detention. She has since gone on to record for several film soundtracks on piano, cello, guitar, and vocals.

Kina is passionate about rescuing food, growing food, and feeding those experiencing food insecurity, but it was in another project that she found a unique intersection of her passion for community solidarity and her love of music. In 2020, Kina was appointed Vice President of the former nonprofit organization Musicians in Solidarity, and founded Make Waves, a program focused on furthering equity in music education through funding private music education, supplying instruments, engaging in community outreach, providing educator training for adaptive programming, and encouraging diverse hiring practices. Since the dissolution of MIS in 2023, Kina has continued the work of Make Waves as CPO and Managing Director of what is now its own 501(c)3. She is currently working on completing and publishing an anti-racist early learning music curriculum which she originally developed for the Montessori school where she teaches music classes.

Kina is married to longtime musical partner, Matt, with whom she shares adult stepkid, Ian, and 7-year-old daughter, Tallulah.