ABOUT
Maya Petrovna aka Maja Petrovna Hilčišin, is an operatic 'crossover' alto, film music composer, multi-instrumentalist, and inter-disciplinary performance artist. Influenced by surrealism, Maya's live music shows are immersive art performances unfolded through scenographic projections and authentic costumes pivotal to the stories behind her music and designed by Maya herself.
Maya is a Sarajevo-born Australian citizen who grew up in the former Yugoslavia, surrounded by majestic mountains alongside brutalist architecture that follows you through the country like Mona Lisa from Alcatraz. She learnt guitar by ear while living in the underground shelters of Sarajevo city during the 1992-1996 siege, exploring first dissonances on improvised fishing line strings. After the war, Maya studied classical guitar and operatic singing at Sarajevo Music High School, Mladen Pozaić.
Following her graduation, Maya left Bosnia in 1999. Over the past two decades, she has shaped her sound from singing in post-punk bands in Barcelona to working in the performance art and film industry in London, Australia, Italy, and Asia.
FILM MUSIC
Maya's extensive portfolio was crucial in entering the prestigious Master of Arts program in Film Music Composition at Sydney AFTRS in 2007, given that she did not have a formal education in composition. Since graduating, Maya has composed music for 21 movies, including award-winning short films screened at international film festivals.
Maya was the composer for 10 Apple podcast series about film Australia by an acclaimed film director Baz Luhrmann, a global advertising campaign for Tourism Australia (Revolver Film and Bazmarq), and a Vogue spot featuring Annie Leibovitz. She provided vocals and orchestral scores recorded with a chamber orchestra at the Trackdown Scoring Stage. Maya's credits include composing music for a live string orchestra performance for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards (Sydney), a score for Suzie Lovitt's film about young Jude Law's son directed by Ben Charles Edwards and produced by Sadie Frost, and composing music for 13 BTS 'Start your Impossible' series for the 2020 Paralympics, Toyota (Asia Pacific).
Her style encompasses orchestral, electronica, textural drones, and songwriting. While operatically trained, Maya is a vocalist of contemporary styles and Eastern European white voice techniques. For a full list of film credits click here.
After Baz Luhrmann’s film Australia premiered, Maya moved her base to London in 2009.
PERFORMANCE ART
During a 10-year UK residency, Maya developed her live music show into a multidimensional art experience. This expansion facilitated her emergence as a costume designer and video artist, binding her music to symbolic scenography anchored in compelling societal and psychological themes.
For her solo show "Futura Monomania", Maya composed a fusion of orchestral, opera and textural drones. She designed 6 costumes representing alienated beings in a futuristic utopia, exploring the concept of unity versus individuality. In her solo show "Love Songs from the Violent Paradise", Maya wrote contemporary operatic songs and designed 7 costumes, portraying the imaginative worlds of a child healing from war trauma. Maya’s music art performances include solo show ‘The Womb of Universe and The Boob Monster’, at the Sydney Opera House for sold-out Club Kooky, and for the official opening of 2019 Sydney VIVID. Her credits include writing the music and designing the hand-laced Moth creature for her closing operatic act directed by Bryn Harris Wathen, holding multiple residencies at the renowned Box Soho.
Maya's solo shows have toured Europe extensively, from London to the International Rome Film Festival, International Sarajevo Film Festival, London Fashion Week, and headlining Croatia's Seven Days of Creation Festival at medieval Pazin Castle, Porec Art Festival, Prague SWAN, for Venice Associazione Awai, and Berlin Manoeuvre Studios.
Maya aspires to own a couple of black sheep as pets one day.
Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day.