Denmark-based Estonian saxophone player and composer Maria Faust has been awarded with the prestigious Danish culture prize the Niels Matthiasens Mindelegat on 25th April.
The award has been named after Niels Matthiasen, the long-term minister of culture of Denmark who served from 1971 to 1973 and from 1975 to 1980.
The award has been previously given to Danish musicians Michala Petri (1982), Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Palle Mikkelborg (1987), actress Ghita Nørby (known from the cult series “Matador” and “The Kingdom” by Lars Von Trier), writer Benny Andersen (1995) and a few others.
The Niels Matthiasen memorial foundation comments: “The board wishes to acknowledge the unique talent of Maria Faust as a composer, arranger and saxophonist. Maria is in constant musical movement and development of her artistic expression, improvisation and brave alternative approach. Her compositions are simultaneously complicated as well as easy and poetic with precise nuances topped by a simple and beautiful melody. We see a strong will and talent in Maria Faust. She is a unique artist in her genre.”
Maria Faust. Photo: Kaupo Kikkas
Maria Faust is best known in the fields of third stream jazz, modern big band music, improvised music, as well as other other alternative music styles. She is a member of the musical collective and record label Barefoot Records and leads several of her own bands, including the Maria Faust Jazz Catastrophe, Maria Faust Group, Pistol Nr. 9, Shitney, and Sacrum Facere.
Henning Bolte from London Jazz News praised the performance of Maria Faust Sacrum Facere at this years Talllinn Music Week: “It is a bold undertaking. The music is pure and powerful, spiritual and joyful, exuberant and subtle. The tone colours, the mutual fine-tuning of the instruments and the dynamics are all extra-ordinary and it continues to fascinate… Faust’s Sacrum Facere belongs to the premier league in its category.”
Shitney at TMW2016. Photo: Tanel Tero
Maria’s Estonian-Danish-Swedish electroacoustic all-gal trio Shitney will take no prisoners tomorrow at Jazzkaar festival. Facebook event
Sunday, 1st of May will see the rebellious sax player finishing this year’s Jazzkaar with the fresh multimedia-meets-bodily-arts cycle ‘Velocipede’, transcending boundaries set on jazz on spinning bikes. Facebook event
Maria Faust Velocipede. Photo: Kaupo Kikkas