Dave Maric is a British composer and performer of acoustic and electronic music, who has created numerous works for the concert hall, stage and film. He is also an environmentalist/ photographer who currently lives and works at a habitat restoration project in Scotland.
His multi -stylistic music is reflected through a long experience working with classical musicians, jazz musicians, experimental electronics, free improvisers, folk musicians, rock musicians, singer-songwriters, poets, visual/performance artists, choreographers, animators and film makers, which has also led to curating numerous events featuring stylistically varied music – often in conjunction with other artistic disciplines.
During the 1990s he frequently performed and recorded as pianist with artists and ensembles in the jazz, rock and classical worlds, ranging from projects with acclaimed musicians such as Marc Ribot to various contemporary music ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta. In this period he also worked for a number of years as composer Steve Martland‘s artistic assistant whilst also being pianist/leader of his ensemble, the Steve Martland Band. Also during this period his interest in composing began with formative experiments straddling the worlds of electronic music, improvisation and contemporary classical music.
But it wasn’t until 2000 that he began composing for the concert hall, beginning with works for acclaimed classical soloists, including percussionist Colin Currie, violinist Viktoria Mullova and pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque.
Lucerne Festival, Radio France, Cheltenham Festival, Norwegian Radio Orchestra and BBC Radio 3 have all since commissioned works from Maric, including pieces for l’Orchestre National de Montpellier, trumpeters Håkan Hardenberger and Ole Edvard Antonsen and guitarist Fred Frith.
Maric has regularly created works for percussion soloists, twelve of which have been premiered by Colin Currie. Some of these have become standard repertoire for students and professionals internationally. He has also regularly performed and recorded as both percussionist and pianist with the Colin Currie Group.
Maric has long collaborated with jazz musicians and free improvisers; including Decade Zero, a large scale composition for the acclaimed jazz trio Phronesis with the Engines Orchestra, and an electro-acoustic improvisation project called Vicious Circus, with composer/instrumentalist Elo Masing.
Maric has also worked with a range of other art forms from spoken word and poetry to video art, performance art, animation, shadow puppetry, film, animation and dance – where he has produced a wide variety of music ranging from short electronic pieces to full evening orchestral scores. These include works for the Theatre of Dolls, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Channel 4 (UK), Northern Ballet Theatre, Finnish National Opera and the Bern Ballett.
Maric’s long term interest in the natural world and the biodiversity crisis has been a key feature in his output since his 2014 work Trophic Cascades (for two pianos and percussion). Since late 2018 he relocated to rural Scotland to live in, and contribute to, a pioneering rewilding project, in combination with an adjacent food growing project, whilst continuing to work on compositions, photography, film and mixed media projects with various artists, musicians and environmentalists.