Donna Maya

Transfering airwaves into music

Donna Maya is a musicians and sound artist from Berlin. She plays the theremin, the oldest electronic musical instrument that was invented in 1920 and is played in the air, without any physical contact.

Donna Mayas fascination for the theremin comes from a booklet about experimental music instruments, on which a theremin was displayed. Since then, the picture has been haunting her and she tried to figure out where to see and hear this instrument. Because it is rare, the only option seemed to buy one, which she did.

Donna Maya  immediately felt an unlimited freedom in playing and composing with the theremin. Because there are no predetermined playing techniques or literature for it, she was curious how others work. Next she visited the most virtuosic theremin players, such as Lydia Kavina, Dorit Chrysler and Carolina Eyck, listened to their concerts, took some lessons and learned from their experiences. Afterwards she felt encouraged to follow her own ideas and the vision of the inventor, Leon Theremin, to go for a new musical form. The result is her concert program „Lost Spaces – Detroit“.

In her live performance „Lost Spaces – Detroit“, Donna Maya connects analog and electronic instruments and combined the theremin with sounds she collected on her journey through Detroit. Shocked by the fact that Detroit once was one of the richest cities, where the automobile was invented as well as techno, but nowadays looks like a post apocalyptic waste land, she recorded largely abandoned locations and historic relevant places. In every track those place come musicalaly alive, such as the Michigan train station, the Ford factory or the Michigan theater, and are accompanied by visuals she made from the sources of her sounds.