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Maya Beiser

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Maya Beiser 'Kashmir' Official Music Video
Maya Beiser and her cello(s) - TED Talks
Maya Beiser plays Osvaldo Golijov's Mariel for NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
1 I Was There  
2 Memories  
3 Mar De Leche  
4 Only Breath  
5 Kashmir  
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Innova Recordings is proud to announce the release of Maya Beiser's fifth solo album, Provenance. Beiser, hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "the virtuosic queen of the post-minimalist cello," has commissioned works by contemporary composers from Armenia, Kurdish Iran, Israel, and the US. Provenance means origins,' referring to Beiser's distinctive personal history and the intertwining cultural traditions that course through this stunning disc. On some selections, the rich-hued sound of Beiser's cello is heard on its own; on others, she is accompanied by Lebanese-American master musicians Jamey Haddad (percussion) and Bassam Saba (oud), with percussionist Shane Shanahan.

5 New 'ON' this week: 121 Total
Synd: NPR/Weekend Edition Sunday & Hearts Of Space, UnderCurrents
Markets include: New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Wash DC, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Houston, Cleveland, Denver, Baltimore, Detroit, Portland, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Memphis, Orlando, Berkeley CA, Austin, Madison WI, Albuquerque, San Antonio, Toronto
International: Canada, Belgium
Online: Taintradio, Muruch, GreenArrow, BBS, GURU, OtticFM, animaJazz, WGOE, Ottawa Jewish Bulletin

  • Maya Beiser set to release: 'TERRY RILEY's IN C'; and will perform the piece at NYC's National Sawdust / BroadwayWorld
    Posted At: February 11, 2024 12:00 AM
    To celebrate the release, Beiser will perform In C live at National Sawdust (80 N 6th St., Brooklyn, NY) on Saturday, April 6, at 7:30pm.BroadwayWorld's Blair Ingenthron writes….On April 5, 2024, cellist and producer Maya Beiser will release her newest solo album, Maya Beiser x Terry Riley: In C, on her Islandia Music Records label. On it, Maya recreates Terry Riley's In C as a series of ever-evolving cello...
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  • Maya Beiser chats about new recording: 'Infinite Bach' with NORTHEAST Public Radio's 'The Roundtable'
    Posted At: May 19, 2023 12:00 AM
    Describing avant-garde cellist, producer, and multifaceted artist Maya Beiser, The New York Times writes, “The adventurous Ms. Beiser has been called the 'cello goddess,' which is not hyperbole: She summons from her instrument an emotional power so stirring that even the most stoic audience members risk turning into sobbing sacks of flesh.” Passionately forging her artistic path through uncharted territorie...
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  • Maya Beiser's heartbeat is her inspiration, and it is beautiful / GRUNGE CAKE
    Posted At: July 8, 2019 12:00 AM

    It is one thing to listen to ambient, elevator music, or heavy bass instrumentals. It's another to be at peace as a seven-minute composition plays as you think about all of the things you won't be doing this Monday. ‘Moonlight Sonata: Adagio' by the Israeli composer, Maya Beiser, is my record of choice. As someone who wakes up when most people at home are resting their bodies, I have to find music ...
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  • Maya Beiser, The Ambient Orchestra perform David Bowie's 'Blackstar' at MIT / The Boston Globe
    Posted At: March 5, 2017 12:00 AM

    David Bowie's "Blackstar" was from the very start an album fundamentally concerned with transformation. When it was released on the singer's 69th birthday, it was one album; when he died two days later, it quietly but irrevocably metamorphosed into another entirely. So Friday's sold-out recasting of Bowie's swan song as an extended orchestral piece at MIT's Kresge Auditorium by cellis...
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  • ARTS AT MIT welcomes Maya Beiser as 'Inaugural Mellon Distinguished Visiting Artist' / BroadwayWorld
    Posted At: February 1, 2017 12:00 AM

    Cellist Maya Beiser is the 2016-18 Mellon Distinguished Visiting Artist at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology. Her intensive two-year residency will feature a world premiere concert of a new arrangement by composer Evan Ziporyn in March 2017. Beiser will also perform new and newly arranged works at the CAST symposium concert in April 2017. In 2015, Beiser performed a prog...
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  • Maya Beiser interview with Minnesota Public Radio
    Posted At: October 17, 2016 12:00 AM

    Cellist Maya Beiser has been called the "reigning queen of the avant-garde cello." Her dramatic performance style takes just as many cues from rock as from classical tradition. But if style were all that it was about for Beiser, the praise she's earned wouldn't be as effusive. Maya Beiser's passion for staking out new territory in classical music is peerless in the equal respect she gives all...
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  • Maya Beiser - TranceClassical / I CARE IF YOU LISTEN review
    Posted At: September 29, 2016 12:00 AM

    Maya Beiser's September 13, 2016 concert at Le Poisson Rouge was like seeing a therapist at a punk hotel. She invited the audience into a defined setting and then unleashed a ride of strobe lights, film projections, and prayer. The program was a live performance of her newest album TranceClassical, inspired by her earliest childhood encounter with Bach. His Air in G opened the program and set expectation...
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  • Maya Beiser - TranceClassical / Washington Post review
    Posted At: August 12, 2016 12:00 AM

    In her 2011 TED talk, the ­cellist-cum-performance artist Maya Beiser said, "I want to create endless possibilities with this cello." That credo lives on in "TranceClassical," Beiser's ninth solo album, in which she continues to push her instrument to new places via a broad range of contemporary composers and songwriters. "TranceClassical," like several of Beiser's other albums, is built by Beiser al...
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  • 15 years after 911 - David Lang & Maya Beiser collaborate for world premiere of 'The Day' at SFJazz / SFGATE
    Posted At: August 11, 2016 12:00 AM

    In 2003, David Lang, who lived near ground zero and witnessed the horrors of 9/11, composed "World to Come," a solo piece for cellist Maya Beiser that wasn't so much about that tragic and momentous day as it was a meditation on the separation of body and soul. Playing over a four-cello recorded track, Beiser sang what the New York Times' Anthony Tommasini called "achingly sustained tones" into a ...
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  • Maya Beiser - TranceClassical synthesizes diverse influences / Wall Street Journal review
    Posted At: August 2, 2016 12:00 AM

    During her lengthy career, cellist and composer Maya Beiser has explored sacred songs, the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Woodstock-era rock, and numerous pieces by contemporary classical composers ranging from Philip Glass to Michael Gordon. On her new recording, "TranceClassical" (Innova), she brings these disparate interests together in what amounts to a philosophical re...
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  • Maya Beiser - TranceClassical / Q2: Album Of the Week
    Posted At: August 1, 2016 12:00 AM

    Very little is understated about cellist Maya Beiser. When she takes a stage, she does so in towering spike heels and flowing hair, bright white pops of light flashing on her black sequins, video projections glowing behind and around her. Her playing is similarly theatrical - she spins out notes like a spider spins silk, each phrase suffused with dramatic tension. Amid the haze of glamour and processed s...
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  • Maya Beiser - Tranceclassical is Philly.com 'Classical Pick'
    Posted At: June 26, 2016 12:00 AM

    Cellist Maya Beiser, whose new Innova-label disc Tranceclassical (out July 29, but available for preorder) is the latest wide-ranging collection of up-to-the-minute composers, including new works by Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, and Glenn Kotche. Beiser's cello is augmented with all manner of high-tech studio wizardry and guest stars that yield orchestral-size textures. Bigger surprises incl...
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  • Maya Beiser set to release - TranceClassical / NPR: all songs tv
    Posted At: June 24, 2016 12:00 AM

    Cellist Maya Beiser finds no boundaries in music. In her TED talk, she recalls the intermingling of J.S. Bach's cello suites and the chanting of Muslim prayers from an Arab village near the Kibbutz in Israel where she grew up. She's equally comfortable navigating brand-new commissions from today's top composers or looping her cello into a wall of sound in rock standards by Jimi Hendrix and Le...
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  • Maya Beiser captivates at Big Ears Festival / Sidelines
    Posted At: April 8, 2016 12:00 AM

    Maya Beiser embodied the avant-garde spirit of the festival in a breathtaking show at the Bijou Theatre Saturday morning. The world-renowned "cello diva" drew the nearly full-house audience to complete silence. One of my favorite pieces at Big Ears was Beiser's cover of "Heroin," arguably one of the best songs by The Velvet Underground. Juxtaposed with the original or any demos of the song, the choru...
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  • Creative Loafing chats with Maya Beiser
    Posted At: April 3, 2016 12:00 AM

    Maya Beiser is an accomplished cellist who has worked alongside everyone from the Bang On A Can All-Stars to Brian Eno, Philip Glass, and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. She brings a bold and unorthodox presence to contemporary classical music by experimenting with various musical styles, and always defying expectations. Beiser performs at the Bijou Theater in Knoxville, Tenn., as part of the Big Ears F...
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  • Big Ears interview with Maya Beiser / WUOT Radio
    Posted At: April 1, 2016 12:00 AM

    WUOT: Knoxville TN - Whitney Dodds talks with Maya Beiser about the Big Ears Festival, and defying musical genres. Beiser's latest release - Uncovered on the Innova label is an album of startling classic rock tunes, re-imagined and re-contextualized, in stunningly moving performances. A cover tune can be an homage to the original, but these "uncovers," in new arrangements by Evan Zipor...
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  • Maya Beiser Brings Multimedia Performance To Atlanta / WABE Radio
    Posted At: March 1, 2016 12:00 AM

    LISTEN TO THE WABE SEGMENT: Here's a Transcript - Cellist Maya Beiser grew up in the Galilee Mountains in a kibbutz, which is a self-sustaining commune specific to Israel. It was made up mostly of Argentines who all happened to have a fondness for music. Beiser started playing cello when she was six. She continued her classical training when she moved to the United States to attend Yale. When...
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  • Maya Beiser. A force of nature in 'Room No. 35' / Boston Globe
    Posted At: February 8, 2016 12:00 AM

    At Thursday night's performance from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Calderwood Hall, Maya Beiser was a force of nature in "Room No. 35." Wielding her instrument like a lightning rod, she careened through virtuosic passages, grafting angular, dark edges onto her phrases. Behind her, Technicolor jellyfish waved their tentacles, and surreal sea plants with human lips smiled eerily. These images, ...
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  • Maya Beiser named 2015 United States Artists Distinguished Fellow in Music
    Posted At: November 12, 2015 12:00 AM

    Israeli-American cellist Maya Beiser has been named a 2015 United States Artists Distinguished Fellow in Music. She receives an award of $50,000 to support professional development, and to foster creative possibilities. Beiser's latest release - Uncovered on the Innova label is an album of startling classic rock tunes, re-imagined and re-contextualized, in stunningly moving performances. The...
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  • Maya Beiser Offers a Concert of Both Rock and Reverence / New York Times
    Posted At: October 17, 2015 12:00 AM

    Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir," the encore that the versatile cellist Maya Beiser added to her program "All Vows," at BAM Fisher on Wednesday, proved not only compelling in itself but also useful in rounding out a disjointed evening. "Flourishes of the sacred and profane," her website promised of the performance, and she delivered all that and more. The first half offered rock and blues classics in arrange...
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  • Maya Beiser's Uncovered plays MIT's Kresge Auditorium / Boston Globe
    Posted At: September 27, 2015 12:00 AM

    Maya Beiser's "Uncovered" performed Friday at Kresge Auditorium in Cambridge, and joined by bassist Jherek Bischoff and drummer Matt Kilmer, Beiser channeled Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog" hard rock, full stop. The arrangements, by composer and MIT professor Evan Ziporyn - like Beiser, a founding member of the new-music ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars - are constantly inventive, utilizing l...
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  • Maya Beiser and Evan Ziporyn tonight at MIT Soundings / Radio Boston interview
    Posted At: September 25, 2015 12:00 AM

    Maybe you like to come home and rock out to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd or Janice Joplin. But classical cellist Maya Beiser rocks out in a slightly different way. Zeppelin's "Kashmir," is one of many rock songs Beiser "Uncovered" on her 2014 album. The songs were arranged by MIT professor and composer Evan Ziporyn, and he will join Beiser in a performance this evening, Friday Sept. 25 atat MIT's Kresge Audi...
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  • Maya Beiser plays New York's Dillon Art gallery with electric cello & LED lights / Here & Now
    Posted At: April 3, 2015 12:00 AM

    Tonight, the renowned avant-garde cellist Maya Beiser will perform at the Dillon Art gallery in New York City. Though Beiser is known for her passionate interpretations of modern music, at this show she'll be playing an instrument that's nearly as intense as she is: an electric cello enhanced with LED lights. Jean Kumagai, from Here & Now's tech partner IEEE Spectrum, has this report. ...
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  • 'TheaterJones' Q&A with Maya Beiser
    Posted At: March 9, 2015 12:00 AM

    Cellist Maya Beiser will perform two shows this weekend at Dallas City Performance Hall, presented on the TITASseason. Her current production, "All Vows," begins with "uncovers," Beiser's term for her versions of classic rock songs reimagined for cello. She is also collaborating with Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, who not only performs, but also has composed a piece for Beiser. The second half of the progra...
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  • The Recital Experience, Expanded - Maya Beiser and Bang on a Can@the Jewish Museum / The New York Times
    Posted At: January 31, 2015 12:00 AM

    Helena Rubinstein, the cosmetics magnate and subject of a current exhibition at the Jewish Museum, didn't want to just sell makeup. She wanted to give her customer what she called a "salon experience." Rubinstein's stores were to the five-and-dimes of her day as the cellist Maya Beiser's concerts are to the average recital. For more than 20 years, Ms. Beiser has built a cult following by creating eve...
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  • Maya Beiser and Wilco Drummer Glenn Kotche join for 'All Vows' / San Antonio Current interview
    Posted At: January 21, 2015 12:00 AM

    Pinning down the music of cellist Maya Beiser is a tricky proposition. In concert, her multitrack, prerecorded loops dance around her cello like variations in a mirror and her repertoire includes classical texturalist Phillip Glass and Led Zeppelin. Certainly, her music is as disruptive to the idea of classical music as it is beautiful. Thursday night, Beiser brings her All Vows performance to San Antoni...
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  • Maya Beiser performs rock songs at Sixth and I Historic Synagogue / The Washington Post review
    Posted At: November 9, 2014 12:00 AM

    Maya Beiser, the reigning queen of the avant-garde cello, has been pushing out the boundaries of her instrument for years, but in a rapturous, high-intensity performance on Saturday night at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, it was clear she's now aiming at almost transcendental heights. Switching between electric and amplified acoustic cellos, using electronics to build huge and sweeping juggernauts o...
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  • Maya Beiser Shreds The Cello on Uncovered / NPR: All Things Considered
    Posted At: October 24, 2014 12:00 AM

    Through the decades, classical cellists have studied the masters: Pablo Casals, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jacqueline du Pre. AC/DC doesn't quite make that list - but cellist Maya Beiser loves playing their music. Beiser gives some of her favorite rock and blues numbers - like AC/DC's "Back in Black" and Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" - a modern cello workover on her new album, Uncovered. "If you l...
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  • Maya Beiser talks Uncovered on the Echoes Podcast
    Posted At: October 24, 2014 12:00 AM

    Maya Beiser has been called a cello goddess. She was a founding member of New York's innovative new music group, Bang on a Can, and can be found playing the works of modern composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen and other giants of modern classical music. But on her new album, Uncovered, it's classic rock that finds its way under the cellist's bow. She electrifies her cello with a gui...
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  • Maya Beiser to perform at Museum of Modern Art / Classicalite
    Posted At: October 4, 2014 12:00 AM

    Classicalite favorite Maya Beiser will perform in Films for Cello as part of Bill Morrison: Compositions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York later this mnoth. The evening will feature Films by BIll Morrison and music by Michael Gordon and Michael Harrison. The event is just short of Beiser's Innova label Uncovered reord relaese, featuring the music of Led Zeppelin Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin and man...
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  • Maya Beiser - 'Wish You Were Here' is WFMT: New Release of the Week
    Posted At: September 14, 2014 12:00 AM

    Cellist Maya Beiser's latest recording - Uncovered is an album of classic rock tunes re-imagined and re-contextualized in stunning and multi-layered performances. Consisting almost entirely of Beiser's multi-tracked cello with drums and bass added by collaborators Glenn Kotche (Wilco) and Jherek Bischoff, these "uncovers" - in new arrangements by Evan Ziporyn - breathe new life into works by...
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  • Maya Beiser performs in repurposed factory space / OC Weekly feature
    Posted At: September 10, 2014 12:00 AM

    Maya Beiser will take over Santa Ana, CA's Logan Creative, a 20,000-square-foot artists' complex that originally operated as a spiral-staircase factory. She will perform music from her new Innova release - Uncovered.  Beiser's physical, magnetic performances which often incorporate electronics have managed to turn classical music on its head. On Uncovered, she makes a strong cas...
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  • Maya Beiser - Uncovered / KDFC: The State Of the Arts
    Posted At: September 9, 2014 12:00 AM

    Maya Beiser's latest CD showcases the other kind of music in her life. She's studied and played classical cello since her childhood on a kibbutz in Israel, but she's been known to include encores by the likes of Led Zeppelin. Her last appearance in the Bay Area, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, split the repertoire down the middle. She's performing at Yoshi's tomorrow night...
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  • Maya Beiser - Uncovered / San Francisco Classical Voice interview
    Posted At: September 9, 2014 12:00 AM

    Throughout her adventurous and versatile career, Maya Beiser has redefined the concert experience, creating music with large sonic and visual canvases. As a young cellist growing up in Israel in the 1970s, one of Beisers mentors was the great violin legend Isaac Stern. Ukraine-born, and San Francisco–bred Mr. Stern frequently visited Israel to teach and Miss Beiser was luck...
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  • Maya Beiser - Uncovered / KING: Second Inversion review
    Posted At: September 8, 2014 12:00 AM

    Growing up firmly rooted in classical music, Maya Beiser felt ashamed the first time she experienced rock music. When listening to Janis Joplin, Beiser says she "felt shaken to the core... it felt so sacrilegious that I was giddy with guilt." This rebellious feeling inspired her latest Innova album - Uncovered, a collection of deconstructed classic rock songs performed on cello. KING - Seattle: Second In...
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  • Maya Beiser - Uncovered / Slate: Gist interview
    Posted At: September 5, 2014 12:00 AM

    Cellist Maya Beiser tells Slate: The Gist how her rebellious streak led her out of the classical concert hall and into the arms of classic rock.  HEAR THE FULL Slate: The Gist Interview HERE...
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