Magda Mayas
Piano/clarinet, composer, musician
Magda Mayas, born in 1979, has lived in Berlin since 1999.
Over the past 20 years, she has developed a series of special playing techniques for the “inside” piano and has since been researching the piano’s tonal possibilities. She uses extended playing techniques, amplification and preparation of the piano as a process of abstraction and at the same time concentrates on the physicality of the instrument as a whole.
She holds a PhD from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and works in the field of contemporary and improvised music with extended instrumental techniques and timbres. Since 2019 under
Current projects include the duo Spill with percussionist Tony Buck, a duo with saxophonist Christine Abdelnour (Paris), Jane in Ether with Biliana Voutchkova (vl) and Miako Klein (recorders) and the Splitter Orchester Berlin.
Magda Mayas has performed in Europe, the USA, Australia, Mexico and Lebanon and has collaborated with renowned musicians and composers of the contemporary music scene, 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.
In 2016 she was Artist in Residence at Villa Aurora, Los Angeles, together with Tony Buck, and in 2017 and 2019 at the Montalvo Arts Centre, USA.
Mayas plays at festivals and exhibitions such as the Berlin Jazz Festival (2017, 2018), Maerz Musik (2012, 2015), Documenta (2012), the Berlin Biennale (2014) and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2015) and is co-curator of the festival “Music unlimited” in November 2019 in Wels, Austria.
Since 2013, she has also produced radio programmes for ABC Australia and Deutschlandradio Kultur, among others, and has released over 30 CDs to date.