Q&A with Maya Bennardo about rustlings

"Since my music is deeply tied to my surroundings and inner life, I generally want to create a space/environment with my music where people can experience a sense of ease and wonder." — Maya Bennardo

dormant gardens i. (excerpt)

Yuko Zama (YZ): I think your two pieces on this album are very powerful yet soothing at the same time, with a sense of serenity underlying the vibrant string sounds. I found them very intriguing and refreshing. It pushes to the edge, but in a coherent way—and this balance is exquisite. On summer rustlings, the beauty of the moment when the sequence of sound sculpts the final silence into striking clarity takes my breath away. I also enjoyed your previous release by your duo andPlay on another timbre.

Can you please tell me about the background of these two pieces?

Maya Bennardo (MB): They are both very much inspired by my move to Sweden from Brooklyn, NY and the new relationships that I discovered with nature and my surroundings through extensive walking. dormant gardens i. is the first in an ongoing series that I am writing of works inspired by my winter walks in Sollentuna, Sweden for either myself solo or with close collaborators. My solo and compositional practice are deeply tied to the violin and my work in Just Intonation, and these two works are a reflection of my ongoing solo practice exploring the acoustic nature and blossoming of three note chords on string instruments.

YZ: The closest place to Sweden that I've been to is Kiel, Germany. I was mesmerized by the beauty of the Nordic sunlight sparkling on the seawater. Your pieces reminded me of that experience. The strings of the violin and viola convey a sharp and piercing clarity reminiscent of Nordic light.

Maya Bennardo (photo © Shervin Lainez)

YZ: What is your strongest motivation in composing music? Or, what inspires your compositions?

MB: Composing is a relatively new practice for me, and I have only been doing it officially for the past six years. I was always wary of the "kapellmeister syndrome" where musicians that play a lot of music and are well versed in the language can easily replicate it, but somehow without much heart behind it. I have an improvisation practice, and over time I discovered a kind of material that I wanted to write down and be made replicable. When I started spending more time in Sweden I also began to feel a freedom in my creativity that I had not previously experienced. My compositions are very much inspired by my surroundings and the organic transitions found in natural environments.

Stockholm, Sweden

YZ: This is a somewhat vague question, but as a composer, what kind of music are you aiming for?

MB: Since my music is deeply tied to my surroundings and inner life, I generally want to create a space/environment with my music where people can experience a sense of ease and wonder. This is something that modern life can often squash with the constant pressures to perform, keep up with the news cycle, and scroll (which I am by no means immune to), but having these spaces that one can enter feels important.

Maya Bennardo (photo © Jacob Storer)

YZ: How did your collaboration with Hannah Levinson begin, leading to the formation of your duo 'andPlay'?

MB: Hannah and I began playing together in 2012 when we were both living in NYC. We have been working together for fourteen years now, and she is a constant in my musical life. We began andPlay not because we were searching to start a new music violin/viola duo, but because we felt that there was something special about our musical and emotional bond. We have commissioned over 50 works and premiered hundreds more, and it is the place where I was able to come into myself as a performer and composer. I trust her explicitly, and I do not take for granted that I have this extremely singular musical partner and forever friend in my life.

andPlay (Maya Bennardo and Hannah Levinson) (photo © Shervin Lainez)

YZ: Why did you choose the violin as your instrument? When did you start playing the violin? What qualities of the violin (and its sounds) particularly fascinate you?

MB: I played the piano when I was very young, but I really did not enjoy it. I begged to quit and hated practicing (much to my teacher's and mother's chagrin). One day when I was about eight my mom took me to hear a friend of hers play fiddle music at a local cafe and I was completely entranced by the violin. I fell head over heels for the tone and versatility of it. After months of asking I was finally allowed to take a lesson, and I loved it. There were (and still are) struggles with my relationship to the instrument and my training as a classical musician, but to this day I remain fully and ardently in love with the sound of this small-but-mighty, magical wooden box.

YZ: Who are your favorite composers, violinists, and violin pieces that have influenced you? Also, what music (composers, compositions, genre, or anything) has had the most profound impact on you in your life so far?

MB: Music has been a constant in my life, and a variety of genres have spoken to me over the years from baroque to pop to free jazz and beyond. From an early age my composer uncle gave me a love for new sounds and exploring energy in music. We would listen to Mahler symphonies, Tracy Chapman, Bach's St. Matthew's Passion, Edgar Varése, and James Brown all in the same evening and I would soak it all up. My years in New York and the vibrant community of music makers I was a part of was also formative to my practice and gave me the confidence to explore the music that I later began to write. I cannot speak on any particular music having the greatest impact on me, but I know that I often listen to music in my daily life to envelope myself in a particular mood that I want to dig into and explore. My own music is an extension of this mood-exploration and delves into a sound world that I am particularly drawn to.

YZ: I love that you grew up listening to a variety of music, from pop to classical, and both traditional and avant-garde composers.

By the way, I read that you use a modern instrument made by the late Tetsuo Matsuda. Why did you choose this particular violin as your instrument? How do you feel about the sounds of it?

MB: I have had this instrument since 2007, and it is still opening itself up to me. Tetsuo Matsida was a fantastic luthier, and his instruments are direct but sensitive. It is a beautiful relationship to grow with this instrument. It has been amazing to see how it blossoms and learns from the tone that I search for. This has obviously changed over time, and there is still a long journey ahead of us.

(Interview conducted in January-February 2026)

Maya Bennardo and Hannah Levinson

'rustlings' is an album of two pieces written by Stockholm-based violinist and composer Maya Bennardo. One of the pieces, 'dormant gardens i' (2022), was written for and performed by andPlay, a duo of Bennardo on violin and Hannah Levinson on viola. The other, 'summer rustlings' (2024), is a solo violin piece performed by Bennardo.

Both pieces were inspired by Bennardo's move to Sweden from New York City, where she developed a new relationship with nature through walking. Her solo and compositional practices are deeply tied to the violin, with which she explores the acoustic nature and blossoming of three-note chords on string instruments. With a sense of serenity underlying the vibrant string sounds, the violin and viola convey a sharp, piercing clarity reminiscent of Nordic light. The music is permeated by the starkness and raw vitality of nature, devoid of sentimentality. Its refreshing purity borders on austerity, as does its powerful transparency, which culminates in a breathtaking moment when the sequence of sounds sculpts the silence with intense beauty near the end of 'summer rustlings'.

*CD and digital album are available here on the elsewhere site and Bandcamp
(CD release: March 30, 2026)

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