Maya Beiser (born 31 December 1963) is an American musician, cellist, performing artist and producer who lives in New York City. Beiser was raised on a kibbutz in Israel by her French mother and Argentine father, and graduated from Yale University School of Music. She has been described by the Boston Globe as "a force of nature",[1] "a cello goddess" by The New Yorker[2] and "the reigning queen of the avant-garde cello"[3] by The Washington Post. Beiser is a 2015 United States Artists Distinguished Music Fellow[4] and the Inaugural Mellon Distinguished Visiting Artist at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology.[5]
Beiser has conceived, performed and produced three multimedia concerts for Carnegie Hall: World To Come;[9]Almost Human[10], a collaboration with visual artist Shirin Neshat and composer Eve Beglarian ; and Provenance,[11] which forms the basis of her album of that name. Her production, Elsewhere: a CelloOpera,[12] which premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2012, is an imaginative retelling of the Biblical legend of Lot's wife, created with theater director Robert Woodruff, with original text by Erin Cressida Wilson and music by Missy Mazzoli. All Vows, a show that reimagines rock classics such as Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" and Nirvana's "Lithium",[13] premiered at the San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2014[14] and was presented at BAM Next Wave Festival in 2015.[15] In July 2017, she performed a reimagining of David Bowie's album "Blackstar", arranged for her by the composer Evan Ziporyn with the Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra and Ziporyn conducting.[16] In August 2018, Beiser premiered Mark Anthony Turnage cello concerto "Maya" at The Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall.[17]
^"Otherworldly 'Labyrinth' of sound, vision at Gardner Museum – The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
^Burton-Hill, Clemency. "Maya Beiser: Making classical music sexy and smart". Retrieved 2018-02-20.
^Brookes, Stephen (2014-11-09). "Avant-garde cellist Maya Beiser's daring hits full throttle". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
^"Maya Beiser". United States Artists. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
^"Maya Beiser – Arts at MIT". Arts at MIT. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
^ a bCummings, Robert. "Maya Beiser Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
^ a bMaddocks, Fiona (29 January 2017). "Maya Beiser: 'I think I was born a nonconformist'". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
^Beiser, Maya (17 June 2011), A cello with many voices, retrieved 2018-02-20
^Tommasini, Anthony (2003-11-01). "MUSIC REVIEW; An Evening's Adventure, With a Cellist and Her Voice". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
^Shattuck, Kathryn (2006-03-09). "An Artistic Trek Across a Surreal Land of Sand and Self-Discovery". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
^"Maya Beiser Returns The Cello To The Middle East". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
^Maya Beiser (2013-06-05), Maya Beiser Elsewhere: A CelloOpera, retrieved 2018-02-20
^"Maya Beiser review: Cellist casts a rockin' spell". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2018-02-20.