University of Gothenburg
University of Gothenburg
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Maria Bania

Professor

Music
Mail
maria.bania@hsm.gu.se
Visiting address
Eklandagatan 86
41259 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 210
Göteborg

About Maria Bania

Maria Bania is professor in music performance, Deputy head, postgraduate education and head of music.

Ongoing research

At present I am the leader of the artistic research project “Rhetorical and Romantic affective strategies in musical performance”, which is financed by the Swedish Research Council. The project studies and explores the aesthetics of musical performances in the eighteenth- and early nineteenth centuries, theoretically as well as practically. The purpose is to be able to better understand and explore the artistic potential of the music of this period, and to enhance the possibilities of affective participation for both performers and listeners in today’s performing situations.

Artistic background

I grew up in the city of Gävle on the Swedish eastcoast where my parents were high-school-teachers, but moved to Oslo to study for a Bachelor in music at the Norwegian Academy of Music with the recorder as my main instrument. In 1986 I went to the Koninklijk Conservatorium in den Haag to study the baroque flute with Wilbert Hazelzet. Back in Sweden I engaged in an international career as a baroque flute player. I was a member of the Danish period orchestra Concerto Copenhagen 1991-2010, and 1992-2006 of the Swedish period ensemble Corona Artis. I also performed with a vast number of other period ensembles and orchestras. I have recorded solo concertos for flute by Agrell and Scheibe with Concerto Copenhagen conducted by Andrew Manze, and solo sonatas by Roman, Scheibe and Raehs with the harpsichordist Lars-Ulrik Mortensen, among other works. As a baroque flutist, I was always very interested in source studies and research in performance practice. So, after part-time studies in musicology I started my doctoral studies in artistic research at Gothenburg University in 2001.

Previous research

My dissertation from 2008 has the title “‘Sweetenings’ and ‘Babylonish Gabble’: Flute Vibrato and Articulation of Fast Passages in the 18th and 19th centuries” and explores vibrato-techniques and -use and articulation techniques for fast passages used by flutists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In a later research-project I studied the eighteenth-century tradition of improvising preludes on melody instruments and how to use that practice today in concerts and in high level teaching. In my dissertation I used flute music by Johan Helmich Roman, among others, and I continued to work with Roman’s flute sonatas, engaging in a critical edition of them with my performance suggestions for the flute part regarding dynamics, tempi, phrasing, articulation and rhythmical alterations.

Miscellaneous Activities

In 2010 I started working at the Academy of Music and Drama, Gothenburg University with academic supervision and tasks such as director of studies, head of the church music department and acting vice prefect for research. In 2017 I was promoted to professor. As head of music I am now responsible for the doctoral program in music, and for supporting research in music at the institution. I am the main supervisor for one doctoral student.