Bio

Maria Eduarda Mendes Martins is a composer, conductor, concert-organizer and teacher resident in Victoria BC. Her compositional works, divided between the worlds of electroacoustic and acoustic/chamber music, essentially explore sonic contrasts, such as the wide use of registers (very high and very low pitch material), the wide use of dynamics (very loud and very delicate sounds), rough and smooth timbres, consonant and dissonant intervals (combinations of notes), and even stylistic contrasts, in which medieval melodies are delivered through spectral music gestures and techniques.

Her musical background—as well as her evolving usage of music techniques—is notably varied; Maria was born in Rio de Janeiro, in 1990, moving to the south of the country with her mother, where she lived from 2001 to 2013, and where her music studies began, in 2006. Maria studied piano for a brief period of time, as an adolescent, moving forward to a bachelor’s degree in music composition, at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), where she was mentored by Celso Loureiro Chaves, and Eloy Fritsch (2008-2012). In 2013, Maria moved to the West Coast of Canada, in order to pursue a master’s degree in music composition at University of Victoria (2013-2015) with Dániel Péter Biró and Christopher Butterfield, in addition to receiving orchestral conducting training with Ajtony Csaba. After Maria’s graduation, her involvement with the local community and music production in Canada led her to stay in the country and to start a career as a Canadian composer and conductor.

Maria’s music has been recorded by Musicworks (edition #129) and by Urban Arts Berlin collective. It has also been performed by Orkest de Ereprijs, Neue Vocalsolisten, Quatuor Bozzini, Cathy Fern Lewis, Luciane Cardassi, Mark McGregor, Proteus Saxophone Quartet (among others), in cities along North America, South America, and the Netherlands. As a conductor, Maria has worked with University of Victoria Orchestra, Sonic Lab, Victoria Composers Collective, The Crystal Singers, St. Barnabas Church Choir, among others. And as a concert curator, Maria’s projects include WoodStockhausen: Experimental Music for Rock Band (2016-2018), Generations of Canadian Music: BC Composers (2017), Oak Bay New Music Festival (2017), among others.