photo by Isabel Crespo Pardo
Maya Keren is a songwriter, improviser, and educator from Philly living in Brooklyn. They play piano, guitar, and sing. They are interested in music as a practice of attention, touch, and deep listening that can reveal a more spiritually attuned way of living.
Maya first came to music as a jazz pianist and choral singer (notably, through the Creative Music Program in Philly), and later as a songwriter and guitarist. They have learned the meaning of musicality through friends, collaborators, teachers, and students, including John Moran, Julian Miltenberger, Akiva Jacobs, Jeffrey Gordon, Maya Rabinowitz, Eliza Salem, Anna Abondolo, Emmanuel Michael, Eden Girma, Lesley Mok, Isabel Crespo Pardo, Miranda Agnew, Julien Chang, Maya Stepansky, Claire Dickson, Camila Ortiz, Celia Hill, Rahul Carlberg, Caroline Davis, Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Maria Grand, Sumi Tonooka, Kris Davis, and Angelica Sanchez.
In April of 2023 they released their debut solo album Blebba Grows. Maya writes songs, loops, and words for their band Careful In The Sun, with support from Looking Glass Arts (recording residency, 2023) The Center for Remembering and Sharing (touring grant, 2024) and YoungArts (recording grant, 2024), with their debut album due to release fall of 2025 on Munich-based Squama Recordings. They are also in the midst of finishing their second solo album Slow Burn. In addition to their personal projects, Maya is also currently working with experimental music elder Henry Threadgill in his most recent ensemble, Listen Ship, for six guitars and two pianos.
Maya has been part of several formative workshops, residencies, and coalitions, including the Banff Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music, Ruha Benjamin’s JUST Data Lab, Ravinia Jazz Workshop, and Avaloch Residency, and has performed internationally and in New York at venues like Public Records, Roulette Intermedium, National Sawdust, The Stone, and Yamaha Hall.
Maya first came to music as a jazz pianist and choral singer (notably, through the Creative Music Program in Philly), and later as a songwriter and guitarist. They have learned the meaning of musicality through friends, collaborators, teachers, and students, including John Moran, Julian Miltenberger, Akiva Jacobs, Jeffrey Gordon, Maya Rabinowitz, Eliza Salem, Anna Abondolo, Emmanuel Michael, Eden Girma, Lesley Mok, Isabel Crespo Pardo, Miranda Agnew, Julien Chang, Maya Stepansky, Claire Dickson, Camila Ortiz, Celia Hill, Rahul Carlberg, Caroline Davis, Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Maria Grand, Sumi Tonooka, Kris Davis, and Angelica Sanchez.
In April of 2023 they released their debut solo album Blebba Grows. Maya writes songs, loops, and words for their band Careful In The Sun, with support from Looking Glass Arts (recording residency, 2023) The Center for Remembering and Sharing (touring grant, 2024) and YoungArts (recording grant, 2024), with their debut album due to release fall of 2025 on Munich-based Squama Recordings. They are also in the midst of finishing their second solo album Slow Burn. In addition to their personal projects, Maya is also currently working with experimental music elder Henry Threadgill in his most recent ensemble, Listen Ship, for six guitars and two pianos.
Maya has been part of several formative workshops, residencies, and coalitions, including the Banff Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music, Ruha Benjamin’s JUST Data Lab, Ravinia Jazz Workshop, and Avaloch Residency, and has performed internationally and in New York at venues like Public Records, Roulette Intermedium, National Sawdust, The Stone, and Yamaha Hall.
say hello! mayapkeren@gmail.com