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Mara Winter

@mara___winter

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@_phaedrus @thefi.nehand

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Line study 1 ♾️

Nobody knows how this melody used to be performed in the time it was written down in Las Huelgas codex (14th century). What I am playing from is only a remaining fragment of the whole piece.

How fluid this line plays, like Richard Long’s photographs of the river Po: constant but imperceptible forward motion, the river’s edges texturized the same way the ornaments of this melody add detail to much longer gestures.

Jerome de Moravia might have had similar feelings about the texturizing of linear sound, so I tried out some more literal applications of his 14th century words about ornamentation:

“[A reverberation] is called ‘stormy’ because, just as by a storm of flowing water the air is moved, lightly agitated, without an interruption of the water, so a stormy note in song ought to be made with the appearance of motion but yet without the interruption of the note or sound.”

#sound #medievalflute #modalmusic #drone by @mara___winter

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3 months ago

Deepest thanks to the entire @gmea_albi team for supporting me in bringing a full-length recording of my project, ‘Ringing Dust’ into existence. My residency week in Albi and Massals is now over, but the memories are embedded within, now as formative elements along with the rest of the nostalgic material that has inspired the textures of this solo program for medieval flutes, voice and resonant objects.

Here are some snapshots from the days of the recording in the little 15th century chapel of Massals. More documentation is on the way...

#medievalflute #dronemusic #minimalism #microtonal #monophony taken in GMEA - Centre National de Création Musicale Albi-Tarn by @mara___winter

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a month ago

This week, Phaedrus is on the way to @femap_festival FeMAP - Festival de Música Antiga dels Pirineus for three performances of ADONIA, in three outstanding locations:
17.July - ALP · Teatre Municipal Casino,
18.July - SANT JULIÀ DE LÒRIA · Església de Sant Julià i Sant Germà
19.July - ESTERRI D’ÀNEU · Església de Sant Vicenç

Find more info here about the concerts at the FeMAP website: https://www.femap.cat/programacio/concert

To warm up for the concerts, enjoy our live performance of “Se lieta e grata morte” a madrigal by Philippe Verdelot that embodies one of the most sparkling moments of the Adonia program. Featuring original diminutions on Renaissance traverso by Mara Winter, and Bor Zuljan, Renaissance lute. Full video on YouTube (link in bio).

Thank you to Fundación Juan March for making this recording available to us. More info here: https://www.march.es/es/madrid/mil-anos-amor #renaissancemusic #traverso #lute #borzuljan #marawinter #phaedrus by @mara___winter

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2 years ago

Thanks to @kulturnidomng for inviting 🌊The Fine Hand 🌊 to open this year’s edition of the Flores Musicae festival! Here are some great photo memories of the concert last night, featuring projections of the graphic score of Kite’s piece, Mniíčagla (along the edges on water), which was commissioned by The Fine Hand for our program, Send It By The Water: The Myth Of The Ballad.
📷 Saša Mrak

There are still two more chances to catch us performing live this fall, in Brighton (UK), and Gliwice (PL). Info ⬇️

BRIGHTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
Brighton, UK
16. October
19:30 - St. George’s Church

ALL’IMPROVISO FESTIVAL
Gliwice, PL
18. October
19:00 - GZUT Gliwice

#balladsinging #medievalmusic #banjo #gothicharp #mountaindulcimer taken in Nova Gorica by @mara___winter

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25 days ago

🪻 A VAGUE AND PURPLE HYACINTH ⏳

Transtemporal dialogues between Gaspara Stampa, Sappho, and Francesca Gaza. The hyacinth threads its way through ancient fragments, renaissance poetry and polyphony, and the new sonic musings of Francesca Gaza. Come and experience it with us!  13.11.2026 - 19:00, Schmiedenhof, Basel, CH
Premiere concert!

15.11.2026 - 16:00, Herz-Jesu-Kirche, Herne, DE
As “Im Zeichen der Hyazinthe”
Part of the Tage Alter Musik in Herne

We are grateful for the support of the Sulger Stiftung and the Kultur Abteilung Basel Stadt for their sponsorship of the concert in Basel.

#renaissance #contemporary #gasparastampa taken in Zunftsaal Schmiedenhof by @mara___winter

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a month ago

I’ve been re-composing the music from the Divine Species series each time we perform the cycle of pieces with @_phaedrus during our Holy Ghost program—three times now. Sometimes the revisions are slight, and sometimes they have been drastic in response to what we learned each time from putting them into the air amidst the active current of a live audience.

One of the pieces that went through a major development was the tractus, Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes: a text which ruminates over the thirst of longing for a loved one who is out of reach, and the bitter substitution of tears in place of that vital connection.

The genre of the tractus itself is used as a kind of substitute for an alleluia in liturgical celebrations, when something so joyous would feel inappropriate. The form is defined by its long, refrain-less structure full of spiraling melismas. I tried to converse with those feelings of unresolved longing in the text, and unresolved modal wandering in the melody, by creating an ouroboros of slowly twisting flute sounds which surround the plainchant.

The entire tractus takes around 6-8 minutes to perform, but here is an extract of the first verse as it sounded in our rehearsal before the concert in Pieterskerk, Utrecht.

Thank you @alvaradojonatan for your flowing embodiment of this poem. Thank you @charlottejschneider and @lianesadler for your similar transformations into water.

The text:

Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum,
ita desiderat anima mea ad te, Deus.

Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks :
so longeth my soul after thee, O God.

#plainchant #dronemusic #flutemusic #renaissanceflute #modalmusic taken in Pieterskerk by @mara___winter

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2 months ago

Thanks @oudemuziek festival Utrecht for sharing an hour of vibrating air with us. It was an honor to perform Holy Ghost in one of the city’s oldest churches, in one of the most beautiful acoustics in town. We are already daydreaming about the next moment we can play this music together! taken in Pieterskerk by @mara___winter

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2 months ago

New music video is out! Link to full video in bio :)
Thank you @mara___winter for your artistry!
👻 ❤️ 🎶
Come and see our duo recital program “Swan Song” at @concertgebouwbrugge October 22nd!
@__artbel
Thank you @geelvinckmuziekmusea for letting us film in your beautiful space and use one of your wonderful fortepianos! taken in Museum Geelvinck by @mara___winter

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2 months ago

In this corner of the internet we love a cantus firmus. Be it as a sort of fundament, like in earlier medieval repertoires — a constant source of melodic material, sound and energy for the rest of the voices to form upon and inform themselves into — or, in its later uses, especially in chanson, where it becomes a source of semantic widening or even problematization: a person leading a thought or reacting to it, commenting, polemizing, starting a conversation or shutting it down, and everything in between.

The cantus firmus (the tenor function in general, arguably) is, for me, beyond being a column, also a gate: not just something to build on, but something to pass through, the outer layer of a humid ecosystem, one you feel in the skin even before arriving and somehow envelops everything once you're there.

Singing with @_phaedrus was exactly that: an invitation to access and inhabit an ecosystem, and to become part of it by staying in it, fully present. You may imagine that's a simple thing, but, paraphrasing a famous Argentinian song: to remain doesn't equate to existing.

Long live Phaedrus, and this ecosystem they hold together! Thank you to @mara___winter for creating such a beautiful program, and to @charlottejschneider and @lianesadler, my tenor companion, for welcoming me in and making it real.

In the reel, a fragment of Que vous madame/In pace in idipsum, by Josquin, from our rehearsal at the Pieterskerk before our @oudemuziek concert. by @mara___winter

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2 months ago

HOLY GHOST: breath, sound, spirit.
Today at 15:00 - Utrecht @oudemuziek festival, Pieterskerk

Jonatan Alvarado, voice
Renaissance flutes:
Mara Winter
Charlotte Schneider
Liane Sadler taken in Utrecht by @mara___winter

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2 months ago

Another long format, not-so-algorithm-friendly peek into my mood board for the Holy Ghost project with Phaedrus, before our performance at @oudemuziek tomorrow, Monday the 3rd, at 15:00, in the Pieterskerk. So happy to be able to keep on refining this wonderful program created by @mara___winter, and to join her and @lianesadler and @charlottejschneider within the stunning sound they produce together. The concert will be available for streaming later in September, so keep your eyes peeled for more info.
See you tomorrow!
—
Background images:
details of paintings at the retrospective exhibition of Helen Frankenthaler at the Kunstmuseum Basel.

Performances:
"Serenata para la tierra de uno" by María Elena Walsh, performed by Mercedes Sosa in "Retrato en Vivo," RTVE, 1979.

"El Puente de los Suspiros" by Chabuca Granda, performed by herself, ca. 1980.

"Let's Fall in Love" by Arlen and Koehler, performed by Anita O'Day; "Live in Sweden," 1963.

Two fragments from Elis Regina's show Trem Azul, Rio de Janeiro, 1981.

"If Love Were All" by Noël Coward, performed by Judy Garland; The Judy Garland Show, nr. 4, 1964. by @mara___winter

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2 months ago

@oudemuziek has started, time for some beautiful music with some of my closest collaborators, and to catch up with friends and colleagues new and old. This year I'll be performing two programs with Sollazzo: "Anonyma" and "Secrets of a Jester," the latter of which includes a new version of this complex piece, "Hé tres douce rossignol," cleverly arranged by @_anna_danilevskaia from different ars nova and ars subtilior readings. We will also reunite with @carinetinney after a while; you can imagine how much I'm looking forward to singing with her again.

I'll also have the pleasure of meeting @mara___winter and @_phaedrus to keep advancing our Holy Ghost program after a premiere at the MA Festival, which felt like a mighty, warm wind...

Come by to say hi if you're around!
More info about dates and times on the Festival's website and social media profiles by @mara___winter

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2 months ago