Meri von KleinSmid is a classically trained musician, composer, sound-artist and phonographer.

With an academic background in Western music and ethnomusicology, plus a long and continuing history of independent study and related experimentation, her primary aim has been to create work that challenges the listener psychologically. Her work has been described in the press as: 'stunning', 'sparse', 'frightening', 'uniquely expansive' and 'emotionally confusing'.

Von KleinSmid's academic music studies started at school (choir and flute) after which she studied piano and violin under private tutors. At the University of Washington and Columbia College in Chicago she studied theory, the history of Western music and ethnomusicology. She has been a collector and manipulatrix of found sound since age eight.