About

Maya Shenfeld is a Jerusalem-born, Berlin-based composer and musician. In her practice, Shenfeld explores the intersection of musical production methods derived from popular, electronic, and experimental music, as well as temporality and the embodied listening experience.

Shenfeld has released two records on the US label Thrill Jockey: Under the Sun (2024) and In Free Fall (2022). Her music has been featured in The Quietus, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Stereogum, Fact Magazine, Music Radar, and other publications. Writing for The Guardian, music journalist John Lewis described her work as "invoking the transcendent," noting that it is "music that uses 21st-century technology to conjure up images of liturgical chants and ancient temples."

Shenfeld has performed at many of the world's most significant music festivals, including Atonal, Rewire, Flow Festival, and Semibreve. She has showcased her work at prestigious venues such as Kings Place in London, the ElbPhilharmonie in Hamburg, Berlin’s Volksbühne, and Milan’s Design Week. Shenfeld's creative vision for Under the Sun was fully realized through an immersive audiovisual show presented in collaboration with Portuguese visual artist Pedro Maia.

In 2022, Shenfeld scored two short films: Piazza Futura by Kevin B. Lee (Locarno Film Festival) and The Flagmakers by Cynthia Wade and Sharon Liese. The Flagmakers won an Emmy Award for Best Short Documentary and was shortlisted for an Academy Award. Shenfeld has also composed music for EMI’s production music library, which has been synced internationally in documentaries, dramas, and radio. In addition to her work as a composer and performer, since 2020 Shenfeld has been working as a researcher and educator for Ableton's learning team.

Shenfeld is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and the University of the Arts (UdK) Berlin, where she completed an MA in classical guitar and contemporary music composition. Her notable compositions and sound installations include Gay Guerrilla Girls (Disappearing Berlin, Schinkel Pavillon e.V.), Five Compositions for the Environmental Song (Institute for Contemporary Arts, KW, Berlin), Outline (Jewish Museum Munich), and Circles for youth choir (Klangwerkstatt Festival, Berlin).

Shenfeld has received numerous awards and scholarships, including Initiative Musik, the Berliner Senat Arbeitsstipendium, Musikfonds, the Goethe Institute, the GEMA Scholarship, the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship, the DAAD Scholarship, and support from the University of the Arts Berlin. She has participated in multiple artist residencies, including Amplify Berlin and EMS Stockholm.

Selected Press

11 April 2024
Rewire festival inspires through total sensory immersion
Live show review
The Line of Best Fit

03 March 2024
Under the Sun Album Review
Futurism Restated

20 February 2024
Under the Sun Album Review
The Quietus

15 February 2024
Maya Shenfeld: Shine On
Interview
Electronic Sound

08 February 2024
Under the Sun album Review
The Wire

09 November 2023
Semibreve highlights
Under the Sun live show review
Crack Mazgazine

08 December 2022
The 10 Best Experimental Albums Of 2022
Stereogum

09 November 2022
Meakusma Festival Review
The Wire

25 October 2022
Maya Shefnfeld: a Sonic Adventurer
Lola Magazine

04 July 2022
The Queitus Albums of the Year So Far Chart 2022
The Quietus

04 February 2022
Contemporary Album of the Month
The Guardian

29 January 2022
Avantgardepop von Maya Shenfeld
Berliner Tagesspiegel

25 January 2022
In Review: In Free Fall
The Quietus