Maya Homburger originally moved to England to join various ancient music ensembles and became one of the leaders of John Eliot Gardiner’s „English Baroque Soloists”.
Ever since meeting the composer and solo bassist Barry Guy – on the occasion of an extended concert tour with Christopher Hogwood’s Academy of Ancient Music in 1988 – she has devoted her time developing her own personal style on the baroque violin as well as managing Improvised and New Music projects and running her own CD label Maya Recordings.
The idea to perform baroque solo works in the context of free improvised music and newly commissioned pieces sparked off the Homburger/Guy Duo and together Maya Homburger and Barry Guy have given concerts in many major Jazz, New Music and Baroque Music Festivals all over Europe and in Canada.
Her specialities are performances of H.I.F. Biber’s Mystery Sonatas as well as chamber music and cantatas by J.S.Bach.
After living in Ireland for nine years where they contributed both to the early as well as the contemporary music scene, they moved to Switzerland in 2006. The close connection to Ireland however remained : From 2011-2017 they organised their own music and art festival in Ireland : Barrow River Arts Festival (BRAF) and they perform regularly in various Irish festivals and concert series with the ensemble „Camerata Kilkenny”.
Recordings include a. o. the Duo CDs “Ceremony” (ECM) and “Dakryon” (MAYA Recordings). The recording of the complete set of H. I. F. Biber’s (1644-1704) famous Mystery Sonatas for violin and basso continuo has also been released on the MAYA label as well as a series of three solo violin CDs with J.S.Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas BWV1001-1006 paired with Barry Guy’s works for solo violin, called the „Butterfly Series” : “Inachis”, “Aglais” and “Lysandra”. Another ECM recording is “Folio” where she appears as violin soloist together with the Munich Chamber Orchestra. The latest Homburger/Guy Duo CD has appeared on the Intact Records Label and is called “Tales of Enchantment”. She also appears together with the Barry Guy New Orchestra (BGNO) as soloist on the Intakt CD „Amphi” and in various recordings with the Blue Shroud Band.
Maya Homburger plays on three baroque violins which are all in original, historic condition: Antonio dalla Costa, Treviso 1740, Samuel Thompson, London 1720, Thomas Perry, 1780 Dublin.
