Red Velvet Maya Fridman

• Karen Tanaka (1961 - ):
• 1 The Song of Songs 08:17
• César Lüttger (1991 - )
• 2 Danseur de Corde 04:38
• Gaspar Cassadó (1897 - 1966): Suite Per Violoncello Solo:
• 3 I. Preludio - Fantasia 05:33
• 4 II. Sardana (Danza) 04:06
• 5 III. Intermezzo E Danza Finale 05:26
• Oswaldo Golijov (1960 - ):
• 6 Omaramor 08:28
• Louis Andriessen (1939 - ):
• 7 La Voce 07:28
• Kaveh Vares (1982 - ):
• 8 Red Velvet 10:20
• Alisa Apreleva (1982 - ):
• 9 Silentium 05:26
• Total Runtime 59:42

Info for Red Velvet

Both music and poetry have the ability to exalt our senses and to heighten our existence.

Some compositions on this album were inspired by poems, others merged the heartbeat of the music and the verse into one whole.

Music strives to produce a poetic vision of the universe, with its language that doesn’t need to be translated in order to be understood. It is able to push away the borders between cultures and traditions, and reveal how everything is interconnected, though expressed in different languages and forms. Just as life originates in its absence, and sounds have their source in silence, so do utmost passion and despair wither into serenity. These ideas stream through this album and culminate in Red Velvet.

"About half a year ago, Brendon and I decided that to celebrate being married to each other for a year, we would give each other the gift of an album recording.

Red Velvet, therefore, is a celebration of love. But more than just a celebration of love between husband and wife; a celebration of love between members of a family, a love for a certain place on earth; a love for the abstract divine…

Love, like music, is something poetical, and therefore best expressed through poetry. Some of the pieces on this album were inspired by poetry, other pieces seemed to have a deep connection with pre-existing pieces of poetry. Reading through the booklet of the physical CD while listening to the music, reads like a collection of assorted poems in many languages, from many different cultures, displaying many different sides of love.

The album title was named after the one piece interconnecting all others: Red Velvet, written by Iranian composer Kaveh Vares. After the premiere of the piece during my solo concert at the old Synagogue room of MerkAz, the whole album fell into place. Written about the atrocities in the Middle-East, with its beastly chaos, screams of victims of a war with no winning side, ultimately expressed by an almost inaudibly silent ending, Red Velvet seemed to be the perfect ending to an album that displays the infinitely many sides of love.

After Red Velvet, the album is ultimately concluded by Alisa Apreleva’s Silentium. Seven years ago, I heard this piece being performed by Apreleva herself, and it inspired me to also combine the voice of the cello with my own voice. Silentium, however, is not the only piece in which I sing while playing the cello. Louis Andriessen’s La Voce, was specifically written for not just the cello itself, but the cellist, where intertwining of the human-like voice of the cello and singing become one cluster of sound." (Maya Fridman)

Maya Fridman, cello

Maya Fridman
Born in 1989 in Moscow, Russia, Maya Fridman is a talented young artist residing in The Netherlands.

From her early years of playing the cello, Maya was recognised as a prodigy and was taken under the hood of the Foundation of Yuri Bashmet, where she took part in various TV and Radio programs. While studying at the Moscow State College of Music named after Alfred Schnittke, she was awarded as the First Prize Winner in the International Festival of Slavic Music among many other reputable awards.

In 2010, Maya has been granted admission at the Conservatory of Amsterdam where she studied under professor Dmitry Ferschtman. Here, on the 10th of June in 2016, she successfully finished a Master’s Degree with the highest honours, Cum Laude.

For the last seven years, Maya has been performing regularly in The Netherlands and Germany. Due to her vast musical interests, she always had a passion for improvisation and playing diverse musical styles.

Each of her solo programs has a strong emotional impact on the audience and presents great works of the last century, as well as completely new works of contemporary composers. She was awarded Best Musician of 2013 Prize at De Grote Prijs van Nederland.

Maya’s projects include successful collaborations with Jyoti Verhoeff, Aeon Trio (with Atzko Kohashi and Frans van der Hoeven), Tomoko Mukaiyama, and many more. During 2015 and 2016, she accompanied guitar virtuoso Harry Sacksioni on his Jubileum Tour 65, and joined bands such as Faun and Cesair as special guest.

She toured with Asko|Schönbergs K[h]AOS, Noord Nederlands Toneel and Club Guy & Roni in the productions Carroussel (2017) & Salam (2018).

During the Cello Biënnale 2016, Maya performed in the role of Margarita in the musical theatre adaptation of The Master and Margarita directed by Dagmar Slagmolen, where she played together with cellist Kian Soltani.

In 2015, Maya released her first album The Invisible Link, featuring works of Alfred Schnittke, Pēteris Vasks, and Arvo Pärt, which she recorded together with pianist Daniël Kool, under the label TRPTK.

In 2017, she released two more albums: Elegy by Æon Trio with Atzko Kohashi and Frans van der Hoeven, and Red Velvet, a solo recording featuring works by Karen Tanaka, César Lüttger, Gaspar Cassadó, Oswaldo Golijov, Louis Andriessen, Kaveh Vares, and Alisa Apreleva.

Her latest album features her own arrangement of Prokofiev’s opera The Fiery Angel for cello and piano, on which she worked together with pianist Artem Belogurov.

Maya is musician-in-residence with Gaudeamus from season and one of the finalists of Dutch Classical Talent 2018/2019.

In 2018 she was nominated for the Grachtenfestival Prijs.

Booklet for Red Velvet