Biography
Duo Mandelbrot is dedicated to exploring music throughout the centuries via the baroque violin and lute. Maya Webne-Behrman (USA) and Niels Pfeffer (Germany), co-directors of Duo Mandelbrot, met at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where they both completed masters degrees in the study of historical performance practice from Renaissance through the Romantic periods under the direction of Leila Schayegh, Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, Amandine Beyer, and Julian Behr.
Individually, Maya and Niels are sought-after freelance musicians all over Europe and abroad, having performed with Rudolf Lutz and the Bachstiftung, Holland Baroque, Leila Schayegh, René Jacobs, Václav Luks, and more.
Both scholars of 17th- and 18th-century historical performance practice, Maya and Niels focus on the effects of colour and texture in their modest instrumentation, creating music in a fulfilling and detailed manner. Through the exploration of musical intimacy and sound, Duo Mandelbrot delves into repertoire from an array of periods and styles, with particular interest in and inspiration from folk music, the impressionist period, improvisation, playing from memory, and the fusing of all these methods of music-making to create a an engaging sonic experience.
Duo Mandelbrotwas awarded a residency with Les Amis de l'Esparrou through the Odyssée Artist-in-Residency Programme, which allowed Maya and Niels to pursue their project about intimacy through music, using their baroque instruments to explore the vast array of sound-colours throughout the centuries. This residency resulted in their newly-developed programme, à toi, which they performed at the Utrecht Fringe Festival in 2024.
Musicians
Maya Webne-Behrman
Maya Webne-Behrman is an American violinist and multi-instrumentalist specialising in historical stringed instruments from the Mediaeval to Romantic periods. Performing regularly on the baroque violin, viola, mediaeval fiddle, and viola da gamba, Maya is in high demand as a chamber and orchestral musician, as well as a soloist. Celebrated for her sensitive musicality, wide use of colours, and empathic nature, Maya performs throughout Europe and the Americas. Having had the pleasure of playing at exciting venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and even atop a beautiful mountain in the Pyrenees, Maya has appeared with inspiring artists such as Amandine Beyer, Leila Schayegh, Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, René Jacobs, Václav Luks, Rachel Podger, ARTEK, and Holland Baroque.
Maya co-directs the ensemble pseudonym, which is comprised of traverso, violin, gamba, and harpsichord. pseudonym's performances and research redefine the standards of modern-day historical performance practice by shining a light on the unique role of the traverso in 17th-century repertoire, the fluid implementation of improvisation, and the importance of rhetoric. Maya is also co-director of a long-standing duo, Mandelbrot, with lutenist Niels Pfeffer. Mandelbrot explores the intimate sound-relationship between the lute and violin through repertoire spanning all periods without borders. Having recently completed a 3-week residency through the ODYSSEE Program and the Ministère de la Culture with Les Amis de l'Esparrou, Mandelbrot established a new program intertwining French baroque music and French impressionist music, utilising their strengths as researchers and performers to create an intuitive experience that celebrates French music over the course of centuries. This program has been performed this summer at the 2024 Early Music Festival in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Committed to a humanitarian approach in the dissemination of music, Maya is focused on her craft, who she reaches, and how. Engaged in reevaluating, reflecting on, and nurturing these vast questions, Maya is ever in search of avenues to further expand her community and use music as a catalyst for deep and meaningful connection in this world.
In 2017, Maya completed a bachelor's degree in violin performance with an emphasis in vocal performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the guidance of David Perry, Eugene Purdue, and Paul Rowe. She holds two master's degrees in historical performance in baroque violin from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under the guidance of Leila Schayegh and Amandine Beyer. She also holds a minor in Renaissance studies from the Schola under Baptiste Romain and Frithjof Smith. Maya has completed postgraduate studies with Amandine Beyer and Baptiste Romain, focusing on the art of self-accompaniment in monophonic, Mediaeval repertoire.
Niels Pfeffer
Niels Pfeffer feels at home on (almost) every instrument that is either plucked or has keys – from historical lutes and guitar instruments to harpsichord and organ.
At the Stuttgart University of Music, he teaches theorbo and accompanies on harpsichord and lute. He also accompanies on these instruments at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Additionally, he serves as a research assistant at the University of Tübingen, where he is pursuing a dissertation project on early 20th-century piano roll recordings.
Niels has performed with groups such as the Capricornus Consort Basel and the Bach-Stiftung St. Gallen, among others. Numerous recordings and competition successes document his work as a musician. Most recently, he has performed with violinist Maya Webne-Behrmann in the Early Music Festival Utrecht (Duo Mandelbrot), collaborated with the ensemble “The Levée” on a recording of Etienne Delair's violin sonatas and, together with the ensemble “Auditu Dignum”, won the first prize at the Biagio Marini Competition in Neuburg.
Niels Pfeffer has also appeared on television and radio broadcasts, as well as in concerts and master classes in Estonia, Lebanon, Armenia, and Mexico. He studied basso continuo, harpsichord, guitar, and lute in Stuttgart, Freiburg, The Hague, and Basel. His influential teachers included Johannes Monno, Jörg Halubek, Robert Hill, Zoran Dukic, Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, and Julian Behr. During his studies, he was supported by a Deutschlandstipendium as well as an Excellence Scholarship from the Royal Conservatory The Hague. For his master's recital and thesis at the Schola Cantorum, he received the Marchal-Stiftung Prize in 2023.