Maya Badian

Biography

Sample Works

Dr. Maya Badian, a Canadian / Romanian prolific composer, has established an international reputation. Her diversified output includes more than eighty major compositions for orchestra, for soloist(s) with orchestra, for choir, music for instrumental and vocal ensembles of various combinations, and works for multimedia. Her compositions have been performed all over the world and the many commissions she has received bear witness to the high esteem in which her music is regarded.

Born in Bucharest, Romania, Maya Badian started to compose at the age of five. She received her principal musical education at the National University of Music in Bucharest from which she graduated with a Master's degree in composition. Seminars in orchestral conducting were attended in Weimar, Germany (1972). Unusually, during the period of Communism in Romania, Maya Badian also became the only composer and lecturer from a communist country invited to present Romanian contemporary composers and their techniques at the "International Seminar for Studies and Research in Musical Language", in Vicenza, Italy (1973 and 1974). She immigrated to Canada in 1987, and became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1990. Maya Badian was at the Université de Montréal the only student ever to complete a doctoral degree in the unique impressive period of only two years. Additionally, she achieved unprecedented marks of a peak average: 4.2 [A+].

She organized the first Canadian Chamber Music Concert at The International Music Festival in Budapest (1991). She is the first musicologist to lecture on Fifty-five Canadian Composers from the Atlantic to the Pacific in Budapest, Hungary (1992), in six cities in Germany (1993 and 1994), in Bucharest, Romania, and Chisinåu, Republic of Moldova (2000). She represented Canada as a jury member in various international competitions, such as the 46th CIEM in Geneva, Switzerland, and The Béla Bartók International Choir Competition in Debrecen, Hungary. She is a member of The Canadian League of Composers and an associate composer with The Canadian Music Center.

All Maya Badian's works are published and internationally distributed by LUCIAN BADIAN EDITIONS. The Library of Congress, Washington DC; The International Library of Contemporary Music, Paris, France; and The National Library of Canada has participated in acquiring them for their collections. As a sign of outstanding recognition of Dr. Maya Badian's place in the Canadian music pantheon, the National Library and Archives of Canada, "the single largest repository of information on Canadian music and musicians both historical and contemporary" has requested and preserves her manuscripts and archival documents officially titled THE MAYA BADIAN ARCHIVAL FONDS MUS 228 since 1993.

Bibliography and Reviews:

• Maya Badian. Her Life and Her Music, A Privilege to Soar by Fred Popovici is the first monograph dedicated to a composer of Romanian origin now living abroad. This book was published by Editura Muzicala, Bucharest, Romania, in 2003, and launched on June 9, 2004, in Bucharest.
• I strongly believe that Dr. Maya Badian's work represents a powerful connection between two so different cultures: South-Eastern European, and North American. The structure of Maya Badian's works evolves from the internal coherence of her music, creating a sense of organic integrity. Her music is a testimony to her constant reflection upon the state of humankind. Her compositions signify an important and meaningful synthesis at the close of the past Millennium. - Fred Popovici.
• The music of Maya Badian does reflect the accumulated wisdom of a century of experiment and invention. - Richard Todd, The Ottawa Citizen, March 18, 1997
• "Maya Badian's HOLOCAUST - IN MEMORIAM, SYMPHONY is a sober, introspective and powerful work. ...
  one of music's most important statements on the Holocaust."
  - The Ottawa Citizen, "Holocaust symphony an important statement", Ottawa, September 1997
• "The major work on this recording is Maya Badian's powerful HOLOCAUST - IN MEMORIAM, SYMPHONY dedicated to Elie Wiesel. Other works on the CD by this internationally acclaimed composer are her Violin Concerto, Toccata and Passacaglia, Guitar Concerto and Towards the Pinnacle."
  - The Winnipeg Sun, Winnipeg, February 1999
• "Badian is an important composer. Her music does reflect the accumulated wisdom of a century of experiment and invention."
  - The Ottawa Citizen, "One of our own", Ottawa, March 1997
• "Maya Badian emigrated to Canada in 1987 after having established herself in Europe as a skilled composer of chamber, choral, and orchestral works. Recently her symphonic work Holocaust - In Memoriam (1987) has been performed several times in North America and Europe."
  - Carleton Sound cscd-1006, "By a Canadian Lady. Piano Music", Ottawa, 1999
• "Everything transfers into music. Inspiration surrounds composer Maya Badian. In addition to composing, Maya Badian has presented Canadian and Quebec music at German universities and helped bring Eastern European musicians here to learn about Canadian music."
  - The Gazette, "Composer pours emotions and energy into music", Montréal, October 1995
• CHILDREN'S WORLD, "fourteen short pieces, are of unusually high quality for intermediate pieces."
  - The Ottawa Citizen, "One of our own", Ottawa, March 1997
• MULTIMUSIC CANADA FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM "was born out of Maya Badian's extraordinary ability to synthesize the multitude of distinctive sounds belonging to the culturally diverse groups which make up the Canadian mosaic."
• O. j. B. "Composer Maya Badian celebrates Canada with new CD". Ottawa, November 2001
• MULTIMUSIC CANADA, A LEGACY FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM "The idea of this work is extremely original. The breadth of its objectives surpasses purely musical considerations. Historical and current sounds are transformed becoming a complete, colorful, and complex sound image. The accomplishment of an objective of this size needed a composer who has mastered the highest level of orchestration and compositional experience. Badian has this thorough, solid musical mentality and the ability to transform the variegated images, senses, motive designs, and uniquely balanced canvas of orchestral sound."
  - Moldova suverana, "MultiMusic Canada", Chisinau, June 2001
• Strongly impressed by Dr. Maya Badian's dedication as an artist and as a stalwart promoter of Canadian arts, I decided to publish some of her lectures, so that a larger audience could benefit of her creative work.
  - Lucian Badian
• Maya Badian is not only a composer, but also a real friend to some 55 composers in Canada, because in the few years since immigrating here, she has managed on at least three occasions to bring her Canadian colleagues' scores to Eastern Europe and Germany, where she is in demand as a speaker on the musicologist / composer lecture circuit."
  - O.J.B., "Composer Maya Badian celebrates Canada with new CD" Ottawa, November 2001
• CONCERTO FOR MARIMBA, VIBRAPHONE AND ORCHESTRA "Fortunately, the Beethoven was not the major work of the evening and, in fact, took a back seat to the percussion piece, Maya Badian's Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone and Orchestra, that gave the evening its character and identity."
  - The Province, "Try a musical oddity", March, 1989
• "Maya Badian composed a CANTATA CANADA to celebrate Canada's 125th birthday."
  - The Ottawa Citizen, "One of our own", Ottawa, March 1997
• MULTIMUSIC CANADA FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM "is in six movements, Genesis, Indigenous, Francophonos, Anglophonos, Canada Today, and New Millennium Celebrations. The score moves like the Bible creating order out of chaos as it proceeds from the vastness of the country pre-Confederation."
  - O.J.B., "Composer Maya Badian celebrates Canada with new CD". Ottawa, November 2001
• "Badian's concern for the instrumentalists goes further than the technical details of interpretation, the parameters that always determine the way she begins working. She aspires to a kind of 'fluidity' between composer and interpreter... Maya Badian intends her works to be traditional, but in their structure, they are contemporary."
  - The Canadian Composer, "Maya Badian's Swift Pen", Toronto, February 1989
• CONCERTO FOR TIMPANI, TRUMPET AND STRING ORCHESTRA by Maya Badian is, with her Concerto for Marimba and Vibraphone with Orchestra and her Guitar Concerto, the first composition ever written for these specific instruments in Romanian music history.
  - Maya Badian. Her Life and Her Music - A Privilege to Soar by Fred Popovici, Editura muzicalå, Bucharest, 2003

April 2005

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