Breaking Stereotypes and Empowering Queer Voices: The Evolution of Maria Gajraj
Welcome to Classically Minded!
I’m Garrett John Law, curator, and today I am thrilled to introduce Maria Gajraj.
Maria Gajraj, a trailblazing organist and advocate, is here to share her journey of breaking stereotypes within the organ world and empowering queer voices in classical music. Through her performances, innovative educational initiatives, and boundary-breaking collaborations, Maria is driving change in the classical music scene.
Let's hear from Maria herself!
You're striving to break stereotypes within the organ world. How do you approach this goal, and what changes would you like to see in the industry?
I am! At my first organ conference, when I was 19 (I had been playing for a few months), many people had a hard time believing I was an organist. They would approach me and ask which instrument I played, or if I was a musician or just an admin worker, and similar questions like that. When I work as a substitute organist, I have had security called on me many times since people did not believe that I could possibly be the organist. I have had many such experiences that made me realize that the organ world is centred around and catered towards white men, and as a small, femme, non-white person, I often stick out like a sore thumb!
I think that the very fact that I play the organ is helping to break stereotypes, and I continue to approach this goal by programming music by non-white, non-male composers; supporting the work of other organists of minority races or genders; and trying to be unapologetically myself and to not be scared of taking up too much space.
I would like to see a more welcoming attitude towards other woman, non-binary, and racialized organists; I would like to normalize programming music outside of the traditional “canon”; and I would like the whole organ world to relax a little bit and to embrace things outside of the norm, instead of fearing them. This applies to things like experimental music, film music, transcriptions, social media posts, multidisciplinary concerts, and more! The organ is probably the coolest instrument out there (I know, I’m biased), and I would love to see more organists have the freedom to explore and to play, to create new sounds, without fear of judgment.
Your Instagram following has grown to nearly 10k followers. How has social media, particularly Instagram, played a role in your journey as a musician and educator?
I started my organ Instagram during COVID, as almost a personal “practice diary” to document my practice sessions. Once I started posting, I realized there is an audience out there that is interested in the organ, as probably one of the most inaccessible and therefore mysterious instruments. My earliest videos involve me registering pieces, pulling out stop by stop and describing their various sounds and timbres, then showing the final results of the full registrational colour. I then began posting little videos of things I found interesting in new pieces I was learning, and expanding my content as I gradually grew as a musician and passed through degrees (I started my Instagram in the middle of my Master’s, and now I am almost done my Doctorate!)
I would say that social media has allowed me to connect with people and travel to places that I would not have otherwise had the opportunity to do so, has also reflected my own musical growth throughout the years, and has provided me with a fun, creative outlet to share my musical progress and discoveries with a wider audience. Being an organist is often lonely; you spend many long hours alone in a dark, empty church, and no-one really knows what you “do”. Instagram has allowed me to open up the church doors to the world!
Through your Instagram demonstrations, you provide a glimpse into the inner workings of the organ, breaking down its complexities for a wider audience. How do you ensure that your explanations are engaging and understandable, especially for those unfamiliar with organ mechanics?
As someone who started playing the organ a bit later than usual, (I started taking lessons seriously at 19), it took me a very long time to understand how the organ works, and I still find myself continually surprised by various mechanisms and techniques. When I post an Instagram reel, it’s basically something that surprised me in my own practice sessions, a new discovery that I find interesting and think that a wider audience would also find interesting! This goes hand in hand with making the organ more accessible to a wider audience, explaining little fascinating tidbits of information in a way that would have made sense to me as a 19-year-old beginning organist who had no idea how the organ worked.
You're also involved with the Sapphonix Collective, which aims to promote queer, female, and racialized composers and artists. How do you see the collective's mission intersecting with your own musical aspirations and advocacy efforts?
Sapphonix is the dearest thing to my heart! I feel so lucky to create beautiful, immersive concert experiences with my co-founder, Esther-Ruth Teel. Sapphonix’ mission is directly aligned with my own personal mission, to make classical music (particularly the organ) more accessible; to promote and amplify queer, femme, and racialized voices; and to create multidisciplinary art projects with these goals in mind. Additionally, I have recently been playing works by experimental / minimalist composers such as Ann Southam and Hania Rani, and this kind of music perfectly fits the dreamy ambience of our Sapphonix concert spaces.
We always have a “lower-sensory zone” at our events, and we hire local experimental artists to create vibey soundscapes, often with a blend of acoustic instruments and live electronics. I have recently started to experiment with creating these improvisatory soundscapes myself, directly inspired by our Sapphonix events and the artists we work with.
Through Sapphonix, and the network and community that it offers, I’ve been able to work with dancers and circus artists; co-lead community workshops on “Forgotten Voices within Classical Music”; and plan projects like driving a Hauptwerk console in the Pride Parade, or commissioning a large-scale Passion Oratorio and writing the libretto by blending Sappho’s fragmented poetry with my own (stay tuned for more info about these projects!)
Tell us more about the Sonic Immersion Nights and Salon Nights organized by the Sapphonix Collective. What inspired these events, and what do you hope participants take away from them?
As I mentioned earlier, classical music spheres are often white- and male-dominated, and we founded Sapphonix Collective out of a need for a space in which femme, queer, and racialized musicians can have their artistic voices heard and amplified. Our focus on intertwining music and community reflects back to when classical music was exciting and vital.
For instance, our Sapphic Salon Nights are immersive classical music experiences where audience members sit curled up on couches in a century-old Montreal mansion, listen to professional musicians, watch as visual artists paint or sculpt or tattoo, mingle and build community. “Sapphic Salon Nights” found their inspiration in 17th century music salons, one of the few spaces where women held power.
In the 21st century, while we have come a long way on the quest for equality, classical music spheres are sometimes still lacking in diversity and inclusion, isolating musicians who are of minority race, gender, or sexuality. With the “Salon Nights”, Sapphonix creates a performance atmosphere that is safe and accepting, in which musicians can perform in the manner most affirming to their personal identity.
An example of a “Sapphic Salon” program includes works from composers and poets ranging from Sappho, to Hildegard von Bingen, to Amy Beach, to local composers such as Anita Pari. This program celebrates artistic works by women throughout the millennia, presenting them to an audience mainly composed of queer youth under 30. At our Sonic Immersion Events, which are held in the organ loft of a church, we provide crafts and art supplies, to allow for more diverse ways of listening and participating.
Our interdisciplinary practice blurs the traditional boundaries between different art forms, and hierarchies between performers and audience members. For example, our immersive performance for Nuit Blanche (an annual event in Montreal where cultural institutions keep their doors open all night long) blended organ, electronics, sculptures, lighting, projections, and dance to explore the experience of living in queer bodies, anthropomorphizing nature (especially water) through a queer and sapphic lens. We projected video on a constellation of circular hanging screens. Dancers performed throughout the cathedral. We played original compositions and works by Olivier Messiaen, Hania Rani, Florence Price, and Philip Glass. This alternative to the average organ concert, appealed to seasoned organists, young queer people, and many others - almost 3000 people attended throughout the night.
We love creating new ways to experience classical music and art, focused on making it accessible for young queer people, and on recontextualizing the organ as a secular instrument and tool of social change. We hope that when people leave our events, they feel revitalized with a new love for community, classical music, and that they feel seen and celebrated for who they are.
You have a unique talent for playing the organetto, an instrument traditionally associated with medieval music. How did you discover this instrument, and what drew you to incorporate it into your repertoire, especially with contemporary music?
I have been so lucky to borrow this organetto from my friend and early music specialist, Isabelle Douailly-Backman. Isabelle organized a medieval music ensemble for one of our Salons, and I was the designated organetto player. I had been going through a rough period with my own instrument, experiencing burnout after a particularly difficult semester. The organetto provided a way for me to rediscover my love and excitement for music; music as “play”, which is something that I had not felt since I was first starting organ lessons.
I ended up borrowing the organetto for an extended period of time, and while playing around with it at home, I was fascinated by the ability to manipulate pitch by changing the pressure of the bellows. Many of my friends create music by placing mics inside the pipe organ, to play with live electronics. I rented a tiny mic from a local audio store, and borrowed equipment from McGill, to see what kinds of sounds I could make by combining the organetto with electronics. One day, after church on Sunday, I spent hours trying to figure out how to set up the live electronics. After countless YouTube videos, I was able to create soundscapes using the organetto, my laptop, and my little Bose speaker at home.
I actually recorded two organetto-electronics improvisations for my upcoming album, “exhale.” The audio engineer, Isabel Castile, used this technique that only exists in McGill’s research facilities for graduate sound-recording students, to play the electronics through speakers hanging throughout the room, and then record the entire room. The result was ethereal, and so fun for me to play around with!
Collaboration is such a key aspect of the music-making process. Could you share with us some memorable collaborations you've had with other musicians in your network? Who are some of your favorite collaborators, and what makes working with them so special?
I am surrounded by so many incredible artists and musicians! Through Sapphonix alone, I have collaborated with over a hundred artists (sculptors, writers, tarot readers, tattoo artists, painters, and of course classical musicians), that I feel so lucky to have worked with! My favourite recent collaborators include Earth World Collaborative (Adrian Foster and Joel Peters), Isabelle Douailly-Backman (artistic director of Ensemble Comtessa), Adlesia Choir (directed by Megan Batty), and of course, my other half, Sapphonix co-founder Esther-Ruth Teel.
Earth World is a source of constant inspiration to our Sapphonix Collective. They also feature the organ in new, multidisciplinary contexts, and both Adrian and Joel are incredible composers and mentors - I turned to Adrian for advice when I wanted to experiment with organetto and electronics, and he has climbed into countless organs to set up mics so that we can play with organ and live electronics! Last year, Sapphonix and Earth World collaborated on “Of Bodies”, an immersive concert experience on Nuit Blanche, attended by over 3000 people (as mentioned earlier). Adrian and Joel also double as a video-recording and sound-recording team, and recently helped me record this beautiful piece by Canadian composers Robyn Jacob and George Rahi.
I have been borrowing the organetto from Isabelle, and I have played organetto in a few medieval concerts with Ensemble Comtessa, which specializes in music from the 11th to 15th centuries. It is a joy to work with other women and non-binary musicians, to bring ancient music to life with such a fun and vibrant group of people. Isabelle and I have also performed as a duo, and we are recording a music video this week, blending medieval music with live electronics to create sounds that have never been heard before. I love working with people whose creativity and passion for music is boundless; it reignites my own love for music. Isabelle is one of those people!
Sapphonix could not have existed without Esther-Ruth! Working with them is as comfortable as breathing. When one of us has an idea, the other instantly matches the energy to bring the vision to life, and because of this, we have been able to create events beyond our wildest dreams. Working with your best friend doesn’t feel like work at all; instead, it feels like play, bringing me back to a time when I believed that fairies and magic existed, and that the world was full of mysterious and exciting possibilities. We are currently working on our “Sapphic Passion”, a new kind of Passion Oratorio, with a libretto comprised of my words and Sappho’s, and new music commissioned from six queer, femme, and BIPOC composers from around the world (including Esther-Ruth!) We received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to bring this vision to life, and we have circus artists, dancers, three choirs, fashion designers, and more on our team. I would not have even been able to dream of such a beautiful, large-scale project without Esther-Ruth by my side!
Your doctoral research focusing on Caribbean organ repertoire and performance practice in the 20th century sounds incredibly intriguing. Could you tell us more about the inspiration behind this research and what you hope to uncover or contribute to our understanding of this unique musical tradition?
My family is from Trinidad, in the Caribbean. During my studies, I struggled with feeling disconnected from my heritage, and when I decided to pursue a doctorate, I knew that I had to bridge the gap between my instrument and my culture. As I tried to find a connection between the two, I realized that many Caribbean islands have strong Anglican traditions, with generations of highly trained organists and composers. Yet, the vast majority of repertoire written by these organists has remained in obscurity. Few have recorded, performed, or studied the works of these Caribbean composers; it has been very difficult for me to obtain information about them, as not many primary or secondary sources exist.
Often, these Caribbean organist-composers were pillars of their communities. They would not only provide service music for churches, but would also be renowned teachers, performing artists, and conductors. One such person was Edward Margetson (1891–1962), an organist and composer from St. Kitts and Nevis, who spent most of his life in New York City. There, he was organist at the Church of the Crucifixion, an Episcopal church with a West-Indian and African-American congregation. Margetson composed prolifically, leaving a diverse body of repertoire, including many works for solo organ. Through the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University, I acquired a number of these solo organ compositions; photocopies of pencil-written manuscripts. In the upcoming (final) year of my degree, I will engrave these manuscripts, creating edited scores; and I will perform these pieces in concerts, sharing Margetson’s music with the general public.
Margetson was greatly celebrated during his time, but has unfortunately been forgotten in these last few decades. He was passionate about his Caribbean heritage, and about supporting those in his community in New York. He celebrated his Caribbean heritage through his works; his pieces are filled with West-Indian rhythms and harmonies, starting from his earliest compositions at Columbia (where he was the only Black man in his graduating class). By making these Caribbean compositions available to the public, I hope to expand the body of organ literature.
Looking ahead, what are some of your goals and aspirations as a musician, collaborator, and educator? How do you envision your continued impact within the classical music community and beyond?
I am playing my final full-length school recital, ever (!), this week, and as my time studying organ within an institution such as McGill draws to a close, I have been looking forward to applying the techniques that I have developed in school to create more experimental sounds and textures. In early June, I am excited to travel to Amsterdam for my residency at the Organ In Situ study week at the Orgelpark. Under the mentorship of Jakob Lkk and Hans Fidom, I hope to further develop my own musical voice. Shortly after that, on July 2, I will present at the AGO conference in San Francisco, where I will discuss “Creative Concert Programming in the 21st Century”, looking at ways to make concert programs more accessible and attractive to wider audiences. I’m also releasing an album on May 31! I received the Eleanor Stubley Recording Prize along with Isabel Castile, a sound recording student at McGill, to record this album. It’s titled “exhale.” and will contain ambient and experimental music on the organ and organetto, by women and non-binary composers.
As I look ahead, my musical goals are to become more comfortable with improvisation, extended techniques on the organ, and manipulating live electronics. I am really excited for our upcoming Sapphonix projects (the Pride Parade, the Sapphic Passion, and our regular Salon Nights and Sonic Immersion events); to continue to create spaces to celebrate queer and racialized artists and to build community. In the next year, I will also complete my thesis (“‘Echoes of the Caribbean’ within New York: Caribbean Collectivism in Edward Margetson's Music Making”), one of the last requirements left to complete my doctorate. I hope to present this at conferences, so I can promote the music and community-centred values of Edward Margetson and other Caribbean composers.
I hope that if I have any impact on the classical music community, it will inspire others to become more community-oriented, to share their skills and talents with others who have not been offered the same opportunities. For example, it would be amazing if other organists around the world would also be inspired to open up the organ loft, to introduce the instrument to a more secular audience, and to create safe spaces for queer and racialized people to explore this incredible instrument that we are so lucky to play! I also would love to see a rise in multidisciplinary events, people coming together to create art across genres and disciplines. There are so many scary things happening in the world right now, sometimes it feels like all we can do is spread hope through our art, through community building, and through celebrating each other in our diversity.
In closing, I’d like to extend my gratitude to Maria for sharing her insights, inspirations, and passion for music with us.
Stay connected with her on Instagram!
Thank you for joining us on this extraordinary musical adventure. Until next time, let the music guide your soul and ignite your imagination.
Kindly,
Garrett John Law
Curator, Classically Minded
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