Vancouver Folk Music Festival

July 14 to 16, 2023

Maya de Vitry | TN

Maya de Vitry’s dynamic and vibrant voice seems to rise out of some necessity of bringing songs to life, embracing listeners with what Folk Alley calls a “soulful intimacy”. She grew up in a musical family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, understanding music to be a place of gathering, a way to spend a summer night by a campfire. She was surrounded by bluegrass and old-time music, and country, gospel, and folk songs. She took piano lessons from her grandmother, and took up classical violin in school, but it was some combination of the groove-centered fiddle music of Appalachia, the vulnerable poetry in Townes Van Zandt’s songwriting, and the deeply emotive phrasing of Billie Holiday’s singing that first compelled her to begin creating tunes and songs of her own – and it was around campfires that she slowly found the courage to begin singing them.

Maya first traveled and performed as a fiddling street musician, and then as a founding member of The Stray Birds. When they parted ways in 2018, she embarked on an ever-evolving musical path of solo work and new collaborations. She enjoys moving between acoustic and electric worlds, playing in the musical spaces between folk, country, and indie rock – although she thinks of it all as “song music”. Her music embodies sincerity and playfulness and a compelling reverence for the power of songs to be a place of gathering – whether played on stage, or around a campfire.

She will appear at the festival as part of American Beauties, and with her acoustic trio, featuring Joel Timmons (guitar, vocals) and Ethan Jodziewicz (upright bass, vocals).