Maya Shenfeld is a Jerusalem-born, Berlin-based composer whose music draws on classical training, experimental electronic production, and orchestral writing to create work that is at once visceral and contemplative — exploring how sound shapes emotional and psycho-physical experience. The Guardian described her work as "invoking the transcendent," music that uses "21st-century technology to conjure up images of liturgical chants and ancient temples." She has scored films that have premiered at Venice and Locarno, and been shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
She has released two records on the US label Thrill Jockey — Under the Sun (2024) and In Free Fall (2022) — and her music has been featured in The Quietus, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Stereogum, Fact Magazine, and other publications. Her creative vision for Under the Sun was fully realized through an immersive audiovisual show in collaboration with Portuguese visual artist Pedro Maia.
She scored The Flagmakers (Cynthia Wade and Sharon Liese), which won an Emmy Award for Best Short Documentary and was shortlisted for an Academy Award, and Piazza Futura by Kevin B. Lee (Locarno Film Festival). She subsequently composed the score for Cover-Up, the Netflix documentary co-directed by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, centered on Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and received a BAFTA nomination for Best Documentary; the score was nominated for the Cinema Eye Honors Award for Best Original Music Score.
Shenfeld has performed at major festivals including Atonal, Rewire, Flow Festival, and Semibreve, and at venues such as the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Kings Place in London, Berlin's Volksbühne, and Milan's Design Week.
Her commissioned works and sound installations include Gay Guerrilla Girls (Schinkel Pavillon e.V.), Five Compositions for the Environmental Song (KW Institute for Contemporary Arts, Berlin), Outline (Jewish Museum Munich), and Circles for youth choir (Klangwerkstatt Festival, Berlin).
She holds degrees from 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. She has received grants and scholarships including Initiative Musik, the Berliner Senat Arbeitsstipendium, the DAAD Scholarship, and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship, and has participated in 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