Barbara Mayer began playing the piano at the age of five and made her debut at fourteen, performing the Piano Concerto in G minor by Felix Mendelssohn in the “Concert for Young Talents of the Augsburg District.” She went on to study composition, piano pedagogy, and piano performance at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and the Anton Bruckner Private University, where she studied with teachers including Adriana Hölszky, Cordelia Höfer-Teutsch, and Margit Haider-Dechant, completing all her degrees with distinction.
She received further artistic training as an OeAD scholarship holder in composition at the Lisbon Music Academy and through masterclasses with artists such as Alexander Jenner, Anatol Ugorsky, Masaaki Hirasawa, Filippo Faes, Konstantin Bogino, and Roger Muraro.
Her doctoral thesis in musicology examined the piano concerto of the Brazilian composer Hekel Tavares (1896–1969); it was awarded the highest distinction and published by Springer in 2022. Alongside her publications and review work, she regularly presents at conferences and collaborates with institutions such as the Instituto Música Brasilis.
Barbara Mayer has received numerous grants for her compositional, pianistic, and scholarly work, including support from the German Music Fund’s “Neustart Kultur,” a Bavarian state grant for “Young Art and New Paths,” and a research grant from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research for work conducted at the Instituto Moreira Salles. She was also awarded a scholarship from the Richard Wagner Foundation. Notably, she became the first female composer in the then 50-year history of the Augsburg Art Prize for Composition.
Her compositional work has been praised for combining structural clarity with a subtle sense of sonority, creating dense and sensuously intense sound worlds. Her oeuvre encompasses solo, chamber, orchestral, and electronic works, published by Universal Edition.
In 2010/11, she received a commission from the Augsburg Philharmonic for a concerto for piano, percussion, and orchestra based on Tristan und Isolde. The project culminated in the premiere of her work Tristanesk, which she performed as soloist with the orchestra in March 2011.
Her compositions have been performed internationally by ensembles including the Augsburg Philharmonic, the OENM, and the Ligeti Quartet at festivals and concert series across Europe and beyond, including venues such as the Wiener Saal of the Mozarteum and the Gasteig in Munich.
Since March 2022, she has been represented by the US artist management Price Attractions. Concert performances, scholarly activities, and further composition commissions continue to shape her multifaceted career.
Jury Statement (Augsburg Art Prize for Composition)
“The works submitted by Barbara Mayer show her remarkable professionalism and demonstrate her confident command of contemporary compositional practice. She combines structural clarity with a subtle sense of sonority, creating a high degree of atmospheric density and intensely sensuous sonic experiences. Her music brings together seemingly incompatible elements, bridging stylistic and generic boundaries with imaginative richness and expressive power. With a strong spirit of experimentation, she also incorporates non-musical creative elements. The jury anticipates an exceptional artistic development.”