Amaia Gabantxo is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and storyteller working in the realms of music and literature. Being a writer and a singer, she likes to say that she makes art with words. Born in a fishing village in the Basque Country, northern Spain, to a family full of gifted musicians who were her first inspiration, she has lived in four different countries: Spain, Ireland, England and the US. She is a pioneer in the field of literary translation, the first person to ever translate Basque literature directly into English, and the greatest contributor to this endeavor. She grew up singing Basque songs, received classical training in the Bilbao Conservatoire, studied with some of the greatest flamenco singers in Spain, and with the avant-garde feral singer Phil Minton in the UK. She has taught literature and creative writing in UK and US universities—most recently at the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute in Chicago—and performed with flamenco troupes, classical ensembles and experimental musicians everywhere she’s ever lived.

Now back in Europe, she is the founder and Director of the Arts & Culture non-profit, Kreatribü, which she created with the objective of collaborating with international artists and bringing Basque art, literature and music out into the
world. Her current artistic focus is on creating soundscapes that combine traditional Basque song and poetry with field recordings of Basque landscapes, including sounds captured under water during her freediving adventures. She created some of these soundscapes as an artist-in-residence for the Pererindod / Pilgrimage project in Wales, and another for the Uniting Voices Chicago choir, which premiered at the Pritzker Pavilion on May 2023.