Ordo Ritualis
Maya Fridman presents 20 and 21 March her latest EP, called Ordo Ritualis. The cellist, singer and performer has explored the sound of rituals and brings 2 release rituals to the Bookshop; a White Edition and a Black Edition. Please note: both nights have a dress code.
Location The Bookshop
Duration 90 minutes
Genre Music
Ordo Ritualis
There are rituals you read about in books, rituals you learn from others, rituals created on your own. But there are also rituals in sound, sonic worlds telling stories—about our time, about loss, about encounters with the unknown. In Maya Fridman’s latest album, titled Ordo Ritualis, she collected some of these sonic rituals, created by composers such as Missy Mazzoli, Bryce Dessner, Martijn Padding, Fjóla Evans, Kaveh Vares, and Heather Pinkham. During Spring Equinox, to celebrate the release of this new album, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA) and Maya will host two release rituals: a White Edition and a Black Edition.
March 20th: White Edition To celebrate the new light of the Spring Equinox, we invite you to the White Edition of the Ritual. The dress code is all-white embodying the brightness of the new season, and the lighting design will be bright, warm, and pure. The program consists of works for acoustic cello, voice, and electronics.
March 21st: Black Edition Paying tribute to the darkness that came before, we invite you to the Black Edition of the Ritual. This ritual incorporates a much darker tone, both in its program as well as its lighting setup. Maya will perform works for electric cello, electronics and voice, and the dress code is all-black.
Maya Fridman
Musician, medium, priestess. For Maya Fridman (1989), these words mean virtually the same thing. Music is magic, she believes. And as a performer, she enjoys taking her audience to that other, magical world. This is how she turns each concert into an almost religious ritual.
Upon reflection, there are two Mayas. The classical Maya studied cello in Russia and the Netherlands. She won the Dutch Classical Talent Award in 2019, a reliable measure of musical mastery. Here was a cellist who had more up her sleeve than the conventional repertoire. She was offered a residency at the Utrecht concert hall TivoliVredenburg. The Gaudeamus and November Music festivals also gave her free rein. She played the cello and sang, mumbled and screamed, lit candles and evoked scents.
And gradually, a second Maya emerged: the alternative. She writes her own lyrics and music as a singer-songwriter. In 2023, her first alternative album, The Power of Indifference, was released on her home label TRPTK. Listen to how she wanders through far-flung musical regions, from electronic to gothic and pop. Listen to how she whispers lyrics like in a fever dream. Ask her to describe that alternative world, and she says: ‘dark…’-|-But she doesn’t turn her back on the real world. For example, she enjoys working with other artists. This could be a composer like Jan-Peter de Graaff, whose cello concerto The Forest in April she premiered. Or Tomoko Mukaiyama, the piano fashionista. Or LudoWic, an audiovisual wizard.
And sometimes the world violently intrudes into her life. After the Russian attack on Ukraine, she organized benefit concerts. She founded the TRIDA foundation, to help artists in need. In addition, there is a Maya Fridman Foundation, for adventurous, multidisciplinary projects. And then she is also working on a dissertation. Subject: the ritualization of concert practice. Because everything converges with Maya Fridman. Musician, medium, priestess.
The Bookshop
The Bookshop is ITA's new cultural living room on Leidseplein. This compact stage offers a space for innovation, reflection and new perspectives. Here, makers, performers and visitors meet for special programmes, from experiments to intimate performances. The Bookshop is a place for everyone, with a focus on accessibility and openness. It is a gift to the city, made possible by the support of more than 500 donors and various funds and partners.
