ABOUT
Maya Petrovna (aka Maja Petrovna Hilčišin) is an operatic 'crossover' alto, film music composer, multi-instrumentalist, and interdisciplinary performance artist. Her live music shows are immersive art performances inspired by surrealism. Maya composes original music, designs projection scenery and authentic costumes pivotal to the narrative of her music.
Maya is a Sarajevo-born Australian citizen who grew up in the ex Yugoslavia, surrounded by majestic mountains alongside brutalist architecture that follows you through the country like Mona Lisa from Alcatraz. She taught herself guitar and music reading while living in the underground of Sarajevo city during the 1992-1996 siege, exploring first dissonances on 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 portfolio earned her entry into Sydney AFTRS’ prestigious Masters Degree in Film Music Composition (2007), despite no formal training beyond high school. Since graduating, she wrote music for 21 films, and award-winning shorts screened at global festivals.
Maya composed music for 10 Apple podcast series on film Australia by an acclaimed film director Baz Luhrmann, a world campaign for Tourism Australia- Asia (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 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, emerging as a costume designer and video artist, blending her music with symbolic scenography anchored to societal and psychological themes.
For her solo show Futura Monomania, Maya wrote contemporary opera fusion with open-throat singing, designing six costumes to represent alienated beings in a futuristic utopia, exploring unity versus individuality. In her solo show, Love Songs from the Violent Paradise Maya wrote contemporary operatic songs and designed 7 costumes, portraying imaginative worlds of a child healing from war trauma. Maya’s work includes 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. Maya’s operatic act Moth, directed by Bryn Harris Wathen, was a closing number during several residencies at renowned London Box Soho. She wrote the music and designed the hand-laced creature.
Maya’s solo shows have toured Europe, including Rome and Sarajevo International Film Festivals, London Fashion Week, Berlin's Exist All Women Art Show, headlining Croatia’s Seven Days of Creation, Porec Art Festival, Prague SWAN, and at Venice Associazione Awai.
Maya aspires to own a couple of black sheep as pets one day.
Thank you for visiting and have a wonderful day.