The academic year has started already a while ago, and the professorship Artistic Connective Practices continues the series of Connective Conversations, in which we invite inspiring practitioners and researchers to share their work and explore what this work has to offer to our notion of artistic connectivity.
Invited by Aart Strootman, this year’s programme kicks off with Belgian composer, teacher, curator and performer Maya Verlaak. She describes her compositional process as a scrutinising compositional position in which the creative process is guided by the context.
This results in the development of different compositional techniques for each creative endeavour. She develops novel approaches for each situation, never taking anything for granted. Sharing her creative process is important to her so she develops new notation systems to communicate her concepts. Her compositions are written in such a way that the performers have insight into the compositional process. Maya’s works have been commissioned and performed worldwide. Her music appears on Ensemble Klang Records, NMC Recordings, Birmingham Record Company, and Another Timbre. She is a founding member of Post-Paradise concert series, Acid Police Noise Ensemble, and is currently a member of iii (instrument inventors initiative).
Maya studied composition with a minor in sonology at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague (NL). In 2019 she was awarded a PhD from Birmingham City University (UK), funded by the AHRC Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership. She has been a principal subject composition teacher at the Conservatoire of Amsterdam since 2018.
The Connective Conversation with Maya takes place next Tuesday, 8 October 2024, at 19:30 in the Kolommenzaal of Fontys Academy of the Arts. And as always, we will close in a friendly atmosphere with food and drinks!
Falk Hübner 