Contact
Research Areas
Music
Education
M.M., University of Massachusetts at Amherst
B.A., Smith College
Links
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Dana Maiben
Dana Maiben
A musician all my life, I’m currently active as a composer, conductor, writer, teacher, and performer on violin, viola, and historical keyboard instruments. I grew up in Salt Lake City and won a number of honors as a young concert artist, performing as a soloist with the Utah Symphony and winning a scholarship to Oberlin Conservatory. I began specializing in early repertories while at Oberlin, and continued my studies of medieval, renaissance and baroque music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, where I began my first compositional explorations. I count Thomas Binkley, James Caldwell, Jaap Schroeder, Ron Perera, and Lou Harrison as important mentors. Since returning to the States, I have taught at the Eastman School of Music and the Longy School of Music, have finished two university degrees, and have concertized in Europe, Asia, and North America, often serving as guest director and soloist. I am the founding Music Director for Foundling Baroque Orchestra and Women’s Advocacy Project, whose work to raise awareness about domestic violence was honored by the Women’s Center of Rhode Island with a 2004 Woman of Excellence Award. My first chamber opera Look and Long, based on the play by Gertrude Stein, was performed in staged workshop at Smith College in 1998.
Current Projects
I plan to complete my musical setting of Martha Collins’s “The Green House,” a set of six poems from her collection The Catastrophe of Rainbows (1985); to begin work on an accompanying series of concise essays on text setting and musical poetics in composition and performance; and to pursue a premiere performance and recording of this newly composed work.
Representative Publications
Maiben, Dana. “Francesca LeBrun (1756-1791).” In CD booklet for Francesca LeBrun (1756-1791): Six Sonatas for Fortepiano and Violin, Opus 1, World Premiere Recording, by Monica Jakuc and Dana Maiben, 1-7. New York: Dorian Discovery, 1997.
Maiben, Dana. “To make a Prairie...” Text by Emily Dickonson. Included on CD A Stroll Through Our Neighborhood (New York: Orfeo Duo, 2006).