Maria had always loved composing. She had written songs from an early age, but when she went to University she started to really branch out.

She took the composition module which she gained a 1st in. She submitted a variety of pieces, including a minimalist piece, a choir piece and a Brass quintet. Doing the module allowed her to have one-on-one composition lessons for the first time in her life, and to write a portfolio of contemporary classical compositions which she submitted instead of a dissertation. The portfolio contained a string quartet called ‘The Circus Suite’, consisting of pieces based on Circus characters, a classical guitar piece featured on this website and a film piece for flute and piano. The portfolio also gained a high mark. If describing her compositional style, she would say that she enjoyed using unusual, close harmonies and ‘surprise’ chords, but always liked her music to be tonally pleasing.

She wrote music for short film clips. She also completed all the Foley for these clips, an arduous but rewarding task. She chose clips that inspired her, stripped off all the original sound and created an entirely new soundtrack from scratch. She was fascinated by the intricacies of the art of foley. Her natural perfectionism and attention to detail lent itself well to recording her own sound effects for things.

She learnt to write electro-acoustic music, an experimental genre enthusiastically supported by her tutors. This was an entirely new experience for Maria, as she did not even know of the existence of this genre prior to her time at the Royal Welsh College, but she duly absorbed herself, pushing boundaries to find new sound-worlds. It was for this purpose that she learnt to use Metasynth; software for not only manipulating but completely transforming audio to create new previously unimagined sounds!

During her time at university, she listened to a wide variety of electro-acoustic music, then began composing some electro-acoustic pieces. She found that she was quite purist in that she liked to take just one or two sound sources and create a whole piece from it. This was because she found that the tools at her fingertips gave endless possibilities and could make something so far removed from the original source that it was best to keep things simple and just use one or two instruments at a time! Writing in this style challenged her original understanding of what music was, and as a result helped to open her mind.

In addition to the experimentation and the contemporary classical composition, she continued writing her pop-songs, an obsessive passion that she feels will always be with her.

Maria is an experienced singer with many different things under her belt. She has been classically trained to grade 8 standard, gaining distinctions in all her exams. She has been involved in the tradition of folk singing for years. She has performed regularly in Eisteddfods and concerts from a young age. She was a member of a Musical Theatre club for five years. She has fronted a rock band and a trip-hop band, and is currently fronting a new band. She has sang over different types of electronic music, something which she feels her voice is well suited to and is very interested in. And she has also worked extensively in a studio environment something which she gets a lot out of.

From pop-songs to classical pieces, film scores to experimental electro-acoustic music, Maria has composed in a wide variety of styles. She has been writing music for as long as she can remember, and has strived to rise to any musical challenge that has crossed her path. Rather than limiting herself to one particular type of composition, she has followed her inspiration wherever it has taken her, while still hopefully retaining her own sound. Contained in this website are examples of some of her work created during and after her time at university.

Once Maria had discovered the technological world of music, she immersed herself wholeheartedly. She is now able to use any software platform, having leant her way around lots of different programs including Cubase, Logic, Protools, Reason and Metasynth. Her natural perfectionism and attention to detail lent itself well to any role where she was needed to be a musical producer. She found that studio based work was something she could easily lose herself in. After years of compiling equipment, she currently owns a more than adequate home studio and is able to record and produce at will.