VI.BE

Maya Verlaak is a Belgian composer. She moved to the Netherlands to study at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague (NL). During her Bachelor studies, she studied major Composition and minor Sonology. She studied with Gilius Van Bergeijk, Diderik Haakma Wagenaar and Peter Adriaansz. She enrolled in a two year Master in Composition, also at the Royal Conservatoire. The first year of the master was spend on exchange at Birmingham conservatoire (UK), studying with Michael Wolters and Howard Skempton. She moved back to The Hague to finish her masters degree with Peter Adriaansz and Martijn Padding and in June 2015 she graduated with a distinction. In March 2015, Maya got accepted in the AHRC funded Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership. She moved to Birmingham (UK) and starts her Phd in October 2015. Her supervisors are Michael Wolters, Johnny Golding and John Richards. Reflection and analysis are pivotal to her compositional process. One of her latest series "All x music is y" was performed by established ensembles at several leading festivals across the UK and the Netherlands, (e.g. London Simfonietta, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Ensemble Klang, Gaudeamus Festival) and involved focusing on the characteristics of the instruments, musicians and place of residence of the ensemble. Humor is an important part of her artistic process, both from a compositional stand point and performer’s view.