About The Mayer Project

She claimed music as her life’s calling, and considered it her life companion, the ideal – of her loving, believing, hoping
Elisabeth Sangalli-Marr

The rediscovery of «a rare phenomenon»

This was how Emilie Mayer and the successful performances of her compositions were described at her time. Berlin audiences and musicians held Mayer in great esteem during the 19th century. The Emily Mayer Project aims to explore her forgotten Cello sonatas, which only survive in manuscript copies, and bring them to life again through its performance on historical instruments.

The reasons behind The Mayer Project

There are many performances and recordings of cello sonatas from the 19th century. Unfortunately, most of them have been consecrated to canonic composers such as Brahms, Schumann, Beethoven or Chopin. The goal of The Emilie Mayer Project is to balance the narrative while producing beautiful artistic performances of the amazing pieces composed by Mayer.

Objectives

Our goal is to perform and diffuse Emilie Mayer’s Cello sonatas. Therefore we will focus on organizing concerts devoted to this aim, and ultimately, the recording of some of her pieces to consecrate a CD to her musical legacy. Parallel to this, we will organize public lectures and interviews with musicologists, historians and performers that will help us to understand better the world, context and performance practices that surrounded Emilie.

Conclusion

Emilie Mayer’s forgotten masterpieces, once admired by fellow composers and musicians, royal families and audiences all-over Europe merit being rescued from the silence. The composer was herself an intrepid figure, a woman who defied the rigid establishment of her time through her artistic voice. She’s an inspiring example of resilience, struggle and vocation and our aim will be to make her extraordinary story to be part of Music History.