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. 

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...'