Linda May Han Oh

Invisible Threads is a five-movement work by Linda May Han Oh originally commission by the Melbourne Jazz Festival. It explores the unseen connections that bind humanity, using narrative, illustration, and performance to portray resilience, community, chaos, and unity.

Featuring electronic music pioneer and vocalist Pamela Z, illustrator Keith Henry Brown, and leading artists, Adam O’Farrill, Fabian Almazan, Emmanuel Michael and Mark Whitfield Jnr explores the lives of strangers and how their stories connect. The piece draws inspiration from Oh’s mother’s journey as a seamstress and expands into broader reflections on memory, conflict, and collective healing.

GRAMMY Award winning Linda May Han Oh is a bassist/composer who has performed with artists such as Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, Joe Lovano, Terri Lyne Carrington, Vijay Iyer, Steve Wilson, Geri Allen and Dave Douglas.

Originally born in Malaysia and raised in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia, she is a Guggenheim fellow and has received many awards including a 2024 Herb Albert Award and a 2022 Deutscher Jazz Preis. She was voted “Bassist of the Year” eight times between 2018-2026 by the Jazz Journalist’s Associatio, in 2024 she received an Honorary Doctorate from Manhattan School of Music and was the 2026 Artist in Residence at the Zuckerman Institute.

Linda recorded eight albums as a leader which have received critical acclaim, her latest is a duo album “Beneath Lifted Skies” on Biophilia Records – a label founded by Fabian Almazán that promotes environmental sustainability. Her latest commissions include “Ephemeral Echoes” written for percussion trio/piano trio as well as the 2025 Melbourne Jazz Festival Commission “Invisible Threads” featuring vocalist/electronic musician Pamela Z and animation by Keith Henry Brown. Her band has performed worldwide in venues such as the Village Vanguard and was recently featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk.

Linda has written for large and small ensembles as well as for film, participating in the Sundance Labs at Skywalker Ranch. Most recently she scored “Sorority Story” by film maker Kathryn Smith Pyle.

Linda is currently Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music in the bass department and is also part of the Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice led by Terri Lyne Carrington. Linda was featured on bass in the 2020 Pixar movie “Soul” under the musical direction of Jon Batiste alongside drummer legendary Roy Haynes and was the model for the character in the film – bassist “Miho.”