ABOUT MARTÍN MAYO
Martín Francisco Mayo (b. 1999, Caracas, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan-American composer, performer, and pedagogue based in the Hague. Having emigrated from a young age, he has been exposed to and influenced by many different musical cultures like that of his birthplace Caracas as well as Miami, leading him to the experimental roots of the Royal Conservatoire of the Hague, where he obtained his Bachelors and currently pursues his Masters. In his continuing tenure there as a student, he has explored personal new realms in music all while studying under the likes of Peter Adriaansz, Martijn Padding, Calliope Tsoupaki, Mayke Nas, Trevor Grahl, and Rozalie Hirs.
Into the fifth year of his career, Martín has already acquired numerous awards and accolades as a composer and performer, including winning the Ereprijs for the 2020 Young Composer’s Meeting in Apeldoorn and participating in the November 2019 Erasmus Prize masterclass with John Adams. He has had works performed in festivals such as the 2019, 2020, and 2022 Gaudeamus Muziekweek, the 2022 Dag van de Componist, the 2022 Oranjewoud Festival, and November Music 2022. He also has been commissioned by groups such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orkest de Ereprijs, the Residentie Orkest, the New European Ensemble, the Amici Trio, Ensemble Spaceship, and Konstantyn Napolov.
Martín is interested in storytelling through the artistic process, and his works often focus on unique approaches to rhythm and folklore. As a performer, he is active as an oboist, jazz pianist, and cuatrista, and he is composer, arranger, vocalist, and founding member of Warekes, an ensemble based in South Holland dedicated to the invention of a new inclusive folklore. Martín is also active as a pedagogue, teaching the course “Rhythm and Time For Composers” at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague since 2020.
Cuento, Canto y Ritmo is a mantra, a mission statement. It is a Spanish phrase meaning “story, song, and rhythm,” and it represents the three foci of my creative process.
Originally, it was born out of the impact of displacement from an early age. Having left Venezuela for Miami at three years old, I grew up in an immigrant community that fostered in me a special relationship with heritage. Though the cultural artifacts that I interacted with at home were evidently Venezuelan and Cuban, they were detached from the physical and immediate realities of Venezuela and Cuba. As such, I learned to mold the context of these symbols from my immediate surroundings, resulting in a sort of “imagined homeland” that never really existed beyond me.
Cuento, Canto y Ritmo, then, is my attempt to manifest and share these subtle worlds of imagination with others. In every single one of my works, we se Cuento (“story”) manifested in an unyielding attempt to communicate, be it explicitly or implicitly. Canto (“song”) is the voice or lyricism in my music, regardless of the presence of a singer. Finally, Ritmo (“rhythm”) is my focus on time and rhythm in music as means to grant it physicality.