BIO

 

Magda Mayas, born 1979, is a pianist and composer performer living in Berlin. Over the past 20 years she developed a vocabulary utilizing both the inside as well as the exterior parts of the piano, using amplification, preparations and objects that become extensions of the instrument itself. Mayas has developed a set of techniques that draw on the history of prepared and inside piano vocabulary, but are highly individualized and expand the language for internal piano music making.

She holds a PhD in Music Performance and Interpretation from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Since 2019, she is the program coordinator and teaches improvisation at Luzern University of applied Sciences and Arts.

Mayas performs internationally solo and in collaboration with a large number of musicians and composers. Current projects are Spill, a duo with drummer Tony Buck, a duo with Christine Abdelnour (sax), Jane in Ether with Biliana Voutchkova (vl) und Miako Klein (recorders) and the Splitter Orchester Berlin.

She has performed and toured in Europe, the USA, Australia, Mexico and Lebanon and collaborated with many leading figures in improvisation and composers such as Marilyn Mazur, John Butcher, George Lewis, Andy Moor, Nate Wooley, Peter Evans, Eddie Prévost, Phill Niblock, David Sylvian, Zeena Parkins, Fred Frith, Hamid Drake, Joelle Leandre, Paul Lovens, Ikue Mori, Ken Vandermark, Okkyung Lee, Nic Collins, Elliot Sharp and Maja Ratkje.

Festivals and exhibitions include Maerz Musik (2012,2015), Documenta (2012), the Berlin Biennale (2014) or Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2015). She was awarded a residency at Villa Aurora, Los Angeles in 2016 and at the Montalvo Arts Centre, USA in 2017 and 2019 and co curated the festival “Music Unlimited” in Wels, Austria, in 2019. She has been producing radio pieces for ABC Australia and Deutschlandradio Kultur and released over 40 CDS to date.