...the act of playing music is the opposite of death, its a life and hope affirming act
The war started in my homeland in 2011. From that point on making music was no longer a choice, it was a crucial means to express and come to terms with intense feelings of loss and sadness from seeing my people suffer and my homeland destroyed. On a hot summer's afternoon in London in 2012 I was watching the news. At the time I felt overwhelmed, as if I was going to explode, so I held my qanun and 'Syrian dreams' came out of me. That was the very first piece of music I wrote.
Contemporary Arab chamber Music
“Without words, ‘Syrian Dreams’ speaks of the victory of beauty over death”
– Hanni Bode (The German Record Critics’ Award)
““A chamber music of sorts….Amid the rich Middle Eastern textures are echoes of everything from baroque strings to Philip Glass”
-The Financial Times
“breathtaking slice of originality”
-fROOTS
“This is a celebration of culture as much as a holding fast of all that is good”
**** The New Internationalist
Maya’s second album is funded by
