Research Catalogue

Magda Mayas (b. 1979) is a Berlin-based pianist, composer, and performer whose work over the past 25 years has expanded the sonic possibilities of the piano. She has developed a distinctive vocabulary that explores both the interior and exterior of the instrument, using amplification, preparations, and objects as extensions of its sonic and physical potential. Drawing from traditions of prepared and inside piano, Mayas has created a highly personal approach that redefines the language of the instrument.

She holds a PhD in Music Performance and Interpretation from the University of Gothenburg and is a professor and researcher at  Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

Mayas performs internationally as a soloist and in long-standing collaborations and toured extensively in Europe, the U.S., Australia, Mexico, and Lebanon, and collaborated with many of the leading voices in contemporary improvisation and experimental music. Her work has been presented at major festivals including MaerzMusik (2012, 2015), Documenta (2012), the Berlin Biennale (2014), and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2015).

Mayas has held residencies at Villa Aurora in Los Angeles (2016) and the Montalvo Arts Center in California (2017, 2019), and in 2019 co-curated the Music Unlimited festival in Wels, Austria.

She is co-founder of smallest functional unit, a platform for publishing experimental music scores through the imprint Graphème, and of Khomasi, a Berlin-based curatorial collective behind Making Waves, a series of conversations and screenings on art and politics.

In addition to live performance, Mayas has created radio works for ABC Australia and Deutschlandradio Kultur, and has released over 40 recordings across labels such as Unsounds, Creative Sources, and Another Timbre.