JUNE
Photo by Olga Mufel
Photo by Gilles Aupecle
MAYA AMIR, SINGER
Why did you decide to come to Basel?
Basel is known by its fabulous Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. As Baroque music is my favorite since a young age, I wanted to specialize in it and therefore study in the best academic school of music I experienced so far. A big reason was also the will to study with my teacher until today, Rosa Dominguez, which made me connect to my inner self in a way that no other teacher could create.
After these years, do you want to stay living here in Basel or do you see yourself returning to Israel or another city?
I love Basel and always call it my second home. People from Basel think that I live in Israel and people from Israel think that I live in Basel :)
In the recent years I miss my family too much, the weather, the people, the Sea of Galilee, the sun so I wish to establish Israel as my base and continue as always being on the line between Israel - Basel.
What do you like most about Basel?
The atmosphere, the multiculturalism, the little shops and colorful streets, the importance of arts and music. You can feel that people have desire for art and music like no where else, especially in the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis where I founded my ensemble - Avventura Barocca - you feel that your collegues truely love baroque music and their desire and curiosity to it creates a very special study experience I never had before. We created Avventura Barocca with this very essence of love to baroque music while being open and inquisitive to combine it with different cultures.
I see you are a very active singer both as a soloist and with your ensemble - Avventura Barocca. What do you enjoy most about these two different worlds?
I enjoy being a soloist a lot with people I call my friends over the years - like the Barrocade Ensemble in Israel with them I was fortunate to tour in Italy, Croatia, Israel and Estonia in the recent years. A climax in my career this year was establishing Avventura Barocca. It was a dream coming true to initiate an ensemble you desire to create for a long time and vision for a long time. I like to create my own project and be the captain of my own ship, choosing the repertoire and building an ensemble out of friendship.
I like both - to be invited as a guest soloist as well as create my own projects.
Photo by Andreas Scholl
We would like to know more about Maya. What was Maya like as a child?
I liked to dance and sing since I remember myself. My mother used to listen to a lot of classical music at home and in the day I was born, a recording of the Concerto of Harp and Flute in C Major was played in the delivery room. I used to take a piece of fabric in a beautiful color and dance with it at home to the sounds of Mozart, Handel and Vivaldi, wrapping it around the stair`s railing and forinutres. My mother took me to concerts in churches. I joined the Pa’amon Children Choir at the age of 9 and actually left after one year. My mother encouraged me to come back to the choir again at the age of 11. It was a time I actually wished to be a pop singer and started to take voice lessons in classical singing from a Feldenkreis and voice teacher. Joining the choir again, I wanted to join immediately the older group of youth choir and once the conductor, Tova Reshef, heard me she was so enthusiastic and agreed immediately. By then, I fell in love with classical music and never let it down.
To whom I really owe my voice is my grandmother who used to sing Classical Arabic music. She had a beautiful voice, very touching one.
How was your experience at the Académie Musicale Philippe Jaroussky?
To learn from one of my idols was a great honor and fortune. I learnt so many important things both technically and musically. The bond with Philippe Jaroussky was authentic to me and natural. He inspired me and let me thrive with his ideas. We worked on Vivaldi, Rossini and Ravel and it was a great pleasure.
The entire atmosphere in the academy was great. Although I was the only one who doesn‘t speak French, I could feel embraced by the colleagues and team. The ״Young Talents״ program includes not only singers but violinists, cellists and pianists which I find so important as we could do chamber music together. We singers are being trained for many years very secluded with our voice teachers and in master classes with singers in an endless crucial learning about our body and voice. To me, it is not less important to make music with instrumentalists colleagues as I believe it’s uplifting the level of singing and create bonds for life.
At what moment did you decide to specialize in baroque music and why? What triggered this decision?
Baroque appealed to me since childhood when my mother listened to it at home with its contrast changes of harmonies, rythms, expressions, heartfelt as well as virtuoso passages. In baroque one can understand the message immediately. It is this kind of music that you understand its emotion simply when you hear it. I love this authentic bond it creates and I find it is nearer to folk and oriental music as we know there were historical intercultural exchanges between musicians and instruments from Europe, Africa and the Middle East in those time. Growing up in Israel in the Middle East, probably sharpened this appeal to this authentic music.
Who or what would you say have been your biggest influences?
My grandmother, Margalit Gigi. She claimed to be the first to spot my musical talent. She was an amateur singer, it was never her work but she performed a lot. She sung music by Fairuz, Abdel Wahab, Umm Kulthum, Fayza Ahmend and more. Her voice is a voice with a lot of earth yet velvety and light. She could sing very long and complicated mawwāls and trills, quarter tones, she was surrounded by the world of makam. Listening to her, I believe is how I inherit my ability to sing coloraturas.
Her uncle was an appreciated Oud player and taught her all the songs. She studied music just by listening. She had this kind of voices and approach to music you don’t hear today. We have one recording of her singing when she was 50 years old which we will release soon as a 3 generation project - my mother as a composer, my grandmother as a singer and me as a singer who embraces my musical heritage. It will be called Maim Haim - “The Eternal of Living Waters”.
There is a quite remarkable story that she used to tell of how she claimed to be the first one to spot my musical talent. When I was 9 months old she sung to me a children song and I continued singing the melody accurately and enthusiastically. My grandmother declared excited: “this child is going to be a talented singer”.
My mother, Aviva Amir, writes poetry and composes music. Her deep texts and connection to the divine by finding meaning in life is a great part of my influences as an artist. I am happy to say that this triangle of 3 generations full of love and talent built who I am today.
When I was about 15 years old I got acquainted with recording of Cecilia Bartoli, Philippe Jaroussky, and Andreas Scholl - they have been my greatest influencers of my baroque and classical singing technique as I was amazed by their beautiful voices and how each of them being so unique, being able to transmit their message. Andreas Scholl, whom is my mentor in the recent years and with whom I was honored to share the stage with in a Handel Concert in March 2024, once said to me: “you have to be unique. You have to know why people would buy a ticket to your concert”.
Photo by Lightwaves-Media-Studios
What is your next project?
My next project is a concert tour in Estonia with my ensemble, Avventura Barocca. On the 6th and 7th of July we will perform in the Glaaspernelspiel Festivsl in Tartu as well as the Viljandi Vanamuusika Festival with our program “Baroque meets Oriental Traditions” guesting the Estonian conductor and violinist, Andres Mustonen. We launched this program in our debut-tour in Switzerland in February 2024 and received exciting feedback from the audience which some of them said it was the most beautiful concert they attended in their lives. Our program features music from Egypt, Israel, Italy, Spain, France, Greece and Turkey. It celebrates cultures and transmits a message of unity.
Who is your favorite composer?
Antonio Vivaldi. His pieces are full of life, sensitivity and Rock `n Roll which I also grew up on. A day after our tour of Avventura Barocca, I will start the rehearsals for a staged production of Vivaldi`s only survived oratoria Juditha Triumphans, singing the role of Abra alongside Czech Ensemble Baroque under the musical direction of Roman Válek.
Outside of the musical world, what would surprise our readers to know about you that no one knows?
I used to ride on horses from the age of 6 - 12 and it was also my dream to become a professional rider and own my own farm before I decided I want to be a singer. In my free time as an adult :), I like to sail in tropical and fascinating destinations creating adventures by the sea with my dear husband, Or Hirshfeld, who is a skipper.
Photo by Yoel Levy
