Maya Kronfeld

r. Maya Kronfeld has played an integral role on the SJW faculty for a decade. Her tremendous piano technique and warm teaching style have made her a favorite among Jazz Campers. Maya’s deeply thoughtful approach to music and life helps her to connect with all students.

Maya is a pianist, keyboardist, educator, and scholar whose interdisciplinary approach brings disparate worlds together. Rooted in jazz and known for her versatility with related genres, Maya has performed cutting-edge soul music with Georgia Anne Muldrow, Toshi Reagon, Nona Hendryx and Van Hunt, and lent her skills to exhilarating drummer-led projects by Justin Brown, Blaque Dynamite, Nikkie Glaspie and Thomas Pridgen. In 2019 Maya appeared at the Nublu Jazz Festival in Brazil, the Winter Jazz Festival in New York City, and was a featured pianist in her native Bay Area for the SFJAZZ Festival’s “Mad About Monk” concert, celebrating Thelonious Monk’s 101st birthday. She leads the Maya Kronfeld Trio, and has appeared with saxophonist Howard Wiley’s Extra Nappy and Linda Tillery’s Songs of Protest, as well as touring with Israeli trumpeter Itamar Borochov.

Maya completed her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She has given lectures internationally on literature, philosophy, critical theory and music. Her article, “The Philosopher’s Bass Drum: Adorno’s Jazz and the Politics of Rhythm” was published in the internationally renowned journal Radical Philosophy. In the fall, Maya will join the distinguished Princeton Society of Fellows as the Cotsen Fellow in Humanistic Studies, 2020-2023.

https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/the-philosophers-bass-drum

Maya was also featured in a recent article in DownBeat magazine, after her performance at the Newport Jazz Festival with Thana Alexa, Antonio Sanchez, and Matt Brewer!  Click on the link below to read all about it.

https://downbeat.com/news/detail/newport-artists-talk-music-working-milestones