Violinist and Yale Department of Music Lecturer Maiani da Silva enjoys a richly varied career, feeling equally at home playing in concert halls, recording studios, award shows, breweries, and parked cars. An omnivorous musician, Maiani performs mostly contemporary works, and can also be found playing percussion, singing, and even unintentionally interpretive dancing during measures of rest. 

 

Maiani is the new violinist with Eighth Blackbird, one of the world’s preeminent new music chamber ensembles, and the co-founder of The Furies, an intersectional feminist duo whose mission is to empower the female experience through music and performance art. 

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Dedicated to celebrating the rich diversity of the music of our time, Maiani has been fortunate to collaborate with various other cutting-edge contemporary artists, from members of Bang On A Can All Stars, Wild Up,

The Industry, Shattered Glass, Kinds of Kings, Aperture Duo, L.A. Ballet,

Martha Graham Dance Company, Middle Ear Project, Louis Andriessen,

George Lewis, inti figgis-vizueta, Vanessa Lann, Danny Clay, to Taylor Mac,

Childish Gambino, Joey Arias, Julianna Barwick, My Brightest Diamond,

Rod Stewart, Avery*Sunshine, Kanye West, Peter Gabriel, and

Celeste for the 93rd Academy Awards/Oscars 2021. 

 

She has also premiered works by Du Yun, Raven Chacon, Elizabeth A. Baker,

Gavin Gamboa, Gemma Peacocke, Nina Shekhar, Hannah Lash, and

Jennifer Bewerse, among others. Forthcoming premieres and premiere recordings include works by David Lang, Ted Hearne, Viet Cuong, Kinds of Kings, and more.

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Not one to shy away from bold projects and collaborations,

as concertmaster Maiani premiered The Industry's Sweet Land, 

Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History of Popular Music

(premiere in Brooklyn and tour), as well as Mac's

Holiday Sauce tour. She also performed the West Coast premiere of Ragnar Kjartansson’s Bliss, as part of the L.A. Phil's Fluxus Festival. 

Recordings include an album with the Summa Trio (Navona Records/Naxos), Netflix’s Dear White People, When They See Us, as well as Netflix's Naomi Osaka miniseries, among others.

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Starting in the summer of 2021, Maiani joins Yale's Department of Music as Lecturer, specializing in the performance of contemporary chamber music. 

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Maiani studied under the tutelage of Irina Muresanu at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and Mela Tenenbaum in Brooklyn, N.Y. 

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Maiani also enjoys playing percussion, dancing, lip-syncing, gardening, collecting fossils, and in-person philosophical debates.