Talk in German
Guest: Magda Mayas
Moderation: Mathias Maschat
In the fourth edition of the Denkraum series key_concepts, Mathias Maschat speaks with the pianist and artist researcher Magda Mayas.
Over the past 20 years Magda Mayas has 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. She explores textural, linear sound collage, and 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.
Magda Mayas has been undertaking PhD studies at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, investigating instrumental techniques (like the use of preparations and objects), timbre and spatiality in improvised music performance, resulting in her recently published doctoral thesis Orchestrating Timbre – Unfolding processes of timbre and memory in improvisational piano performance.
Since September 2019 she teaches at the Lucerne School of Music of the Hochschule Luzern, where she is responsible for the subject of improvisation.
The talk focuses on materiality and the agency of the material, with a special emphasis of timbre and Magda Mayas’ overall understanding of the term. In addition to the talk, she also demonstrates some of her inside piano techniques.
https://www.magdamayas.com
Magda Mayas – Orchestrating Timbre: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/382024/382025
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jimIlYggVvk