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In her new project, PROVENANCE, MAYA BEISER explores music that is at once far away from her Western training but very close to her heart and imagination, a journey to her earliest musical memories. She had commissioned and collaborated with major international composers to create musical compositions inspired by the Golden Age in Medieval Spain where Muslims, Christians, and Jews once lived together, creating a centuries-long flowering of commerce,
culture, art, and architecture. Provenance is inspired by this impossibly panoramic sweep of human history and achievement, and by the glory of a multireligious, multicultural civilization that forever changed the West. The World Premiere of Provenance at June 2008’s International
Festival of Arts and Ideas resulted in a sold out performance with no less than two standing ovations and featured two Lebanese/American virtuoso players: Oud and Nay master Bassam Saba and master hand drummer Jamey Haddad, plus live electronics from sound designer Shahrokh Yadegari. This collaboration is a virtuosic exploration of the ancient sounds of the Mediterranean through the prism of 21st century global contemporary music and that of Maya Beiser’s singing cello. Provenance will have its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall on October 30 2008, and will tour at major concert venues during the 2008/09 season including the Ravinia Festival, University of Denver, and SUNY Purchase. Following the world premiere of her program, Almost Human, at Zankel Hall last spring, Maya embarked on a national tour of that evening bringing her to Walker Arts Center, the Kennedy Center presented by WPAS, Chicago MCA, Emory University, and On the Boards, among others. The premiere of Almost Human garnered stellar reviews, as has her recording of it, released last year on Koch. Says the Boston Globe, “ With virtuoso chops, rock-star charisma, and an appetite for pushing her instrument to the edge of avant-garde adventurousness, Maya Beiser is the post-modern diva of the cello”.