Soloist marches to the beat of her own cello using multimedia effects

Cellist Maya Beiser prefers not to have an orchestra or even a
piano back her up during her solo performances because she’d
rather do the solo lines, vocals and accompaniments herself.

The cellist, notorious for playing to multi-track recordings
while singing, will perform, among other pieces, the Los Angeles
premiere of Steve Reich’s “Cello Counterpoint” on
Feb. 4 in Royce Hall in a double bill with vocalist Sussan
Deyhim.

“I was always jealous of pianists who could play all the
different parts ““ melody and harmony ““ together. I like
the idea of generating all the sound from the cello,” Beiser
said. “I play the solo line on top of the tracks, but
it’s never the same.”

Beiser, the former cellist for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, left
the ensemble to pursue a solo career full-time. An advocate of
playing new works and supporting contemporary composers, Beiser
often chooses to commission pieces ““ all three of the pieces
she will be playing at UCLA were written specifically for her. And
while each piece involves her playing to multi-track recordings, in
the case of the Reich piece it means playing over seven other
complex cello lines.

Beiser considers herself to be part of a group of creative
performers like the members of the Kronos Quartet who seek to
incorporate multimedia elements into their concerts. Beiser’s
solo not only includes her playing her cello and singing, but adds
poetry lines, dramatic lighting and visual images to complete her
performance.

“I care a lot about the visuals. You can listen to a
recording at home or in your car, (but) the point of people coming
to hear me live is about how I present the music and create the
whole experience,” Beiser said.

Born to a French mother and an Argentinean father,
Beiser’s interest in unconventional music dates back to her
childhood, where she grew up on a kibbutz in Israel. There she was
exposed to and developed an interest in a wide variety of genres
such as rock, Arabic and Argentinean.

But Beiser was studying strictly classical music in her cello
repertoire.

“It was an interesting dichotomy as a teenager ““ I
was playing Dvorak concertos but listening to different music like
rock music at home,” Beiser said.

Balancing classical pieces that made up her cello studies with
her personal tastes in music continued to be a struggle for Beiser
through college. She sought to find a way to incorporate rock music
into her playing rather than conform to the conservative demands of
the classical world.

“When I came to Yale to get my master’s degree,
people always told me I had too much personality and I needed to
change myself to get into the composer’s voice, but that
school never appealed to me,” Beiser said.

Beiser expresses her frustration that artists in the classical
music world are often reluctant to play the work of contemporary
composers, favoring instead Bach and Beethoven, and that they often
do not take advantage of the technology and visuals that are at
their disposal, whereas the art and dance worlds are continually
exhibiting new works.

“Visuals and film in general have become the main ways of
expression in art right now,” Beiser said. “I
don’t understand why music hasn’t had them before. They
seem like a natural evolution.”

In addition, Beiser sees composing pieces that are approachable
and comprehensible to listeners as a growing trend in classical
music.

“At the same time that rock and roll became main stream,
classical music composers were writing music that was hard to
listen to and people learned to dislike it," Beiser said.
“But all of that has changed in the past 15 years. With the
music that I play, I always ask, “˜Is this something that I
would go listen to?’ because as an artist, I get involved on
so many different levels and I forget about the
audience.”

Expressing her desire to transform the traditionally stoic
classical concert setting into a more interactive one, Beiser says
that making a concert fun is one of her priorities.

“There’s something strict about going to a
(classical) concert and sitting stiffly in your seat and being
afraid to cough ““ it’s not a cathartic experience like
going to a rock concert where you get high and dance,” Beiser
said. “I want to create a concert that caters to all the
senses.”