JoVia Armstrong is a well-traveled musician, composer, producer, and educator from Detroit, Michigan. She is an endorsed artist with QSC, Sabian, Icon Pro Audio, and Gon Bops. The Cass Tech graduate has composed music for five independent short films and was voted in the top 5 list of Rising Star Percussionists in DownBeat magazine’s September ’23 issue. She won the 2014 Best Black Female Percussionist of the Year through the Black Women in Jazz Awards and is a 2011 3Arts Awardee for her work as a teaching artist in Chicago, where she built her career. In 2015, she became an official member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).

She has performed with El DeBarge, Omar, Les Nubians, Rahsaan Patterson, Maysa, Eric Roberson, Frank McComb, The Impressions, Isaiah Sharkey, Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble, Malian musicians Ballaké Sissoko & Babani Kone, Joe Vasconcellos, Martha Reeves, and many more. You may also catch her performing in Johnny Gill’s “Soul of a Woman” music video featuring Tiffany Haddish. Her influences include music from Afro-Cuban folkloric traditions, Lebanon, Mali, Brazil, Peru, Nigeria, and Spain. She has toured in Brazil, South Africa, Portugal, Spain, Germany, France, Austria, Sweden, and other countries.

Eunoia Society is Armstrong’s current project as a composer and bandleader. The ensemble experiments with immersive technology while its compositions are intended to lead its listeners into contemplation. The music relies heavily on repetition, drones, reverb, delays, and other time-based processed effects. In their practice, they explore performing in multichannel audio systems, telematic shows, and various techniques using high-end audio. Eunoia Society also facilitates electronic music workshops with young Black girls to gain their interest in technology.

Music for their July 2022 release, “The Antidote Suite,” was composed for The Black Index Art Exhibit. The album received exceptional reviews in major publications such as The New York Times, DownBeat Magazine, Jazziz, JazzTimes, The Wire, and more. Their second release, “Inception,” was released in August 2023 and has received numerous 4-star reviews. 

She earned her B.A. in Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management from Columbia College Chicago in 2002 and a Ph.D. at the University of California-Irvine in the music department’s Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology program in June 2022.