BIOGRAPHIE
Academy Kaiserslautern, lessons for harp, singing and classical dance.
Musikhochschule Mannheim, Germany, examination as an orchestra harp player.
Scholarship for a masterclass with Marie-Pierre Jamet at Nice.
1999 Composition of the film music for "Es lebe die Freiheit - Das Leben des Götz von Berlichingen", a film directed by Martina Klug that told the story of one of the most interesting characters of medieval Germany. In the same year, the television SWR broadcasted a show "The harpist and composer Maria Palatine".
June 2000 Première of the composition "Der blaue Strahl" (Blue Ray at the grand-ducal castle in Karlsruhe.
November 2001 Première of the compositions "Veiled Woman" and "The sands of Afghanistan" at Karlsruhe.
May 2003 Première of "Rilke in Concert" with harp and voice, featuring Wolfram Spyra - bow-chimes and life electronic at the castle of Honhardt.
July 2005 Music-award for young song-poets of the "Hanns-Seidl-Stiftung" and the «Bayrischer Rundfunk" (German Radio). The open-air-concert, which was given at the occasion of the awarding, was internationally broadcasted by radio and TV.
August 2005 Moving to Belgium,Brussles.
March 2006 at the International Day of Water, at Bari, Italy, excerpts are played of the opera "Le chant d'Éos", composition: M. Palatine, Libretto: B. Tirtiaux.
June 2007 Premiere of "Midnight Rose" an extravagant and innovative performance for harp, voice, percussions and lights. (Karlsruhe, Germany).
July 2008 Maria Palatine represents the kingdom of Belgium at the Expo, Saragossa, Spain, with her project “Water Celebration”, a composition for mixed choir and Jazz-Ensemble.
May 2009 foundation of the BRUSSELS HARP CENTER.
November 2009 release of the CD “Spindrift” which is broadcasted by the Belgian TV and radio.
April 2010 “Spindrift Tour” in Germany and Brazil.
April 2011 “Spindrift Tour” in Georgia, Europe.
July 2011 Concert at the World Harp Congress, Vancouver, Orpheum Theatre, Canada.
March 2012 Release of the CD “SHE”, ADAsong Productions, Brussels.
May 2013 Release of the video “Our hearts are with you”, produced by Studio 2 / ADASONG Productions.
July 2014 Release of the video “Libre Office” in collaboration with the painter Agnès Peeters, for an exposition at the “Beaux Arts” Charleroi, Belgium.
November 2016 4-weeks stay for concerts in India (Mumbai, Haiderabad, Indore and Bangalore).
March 2017 Maria Palatine is rewarded with the "Golden Artistic Award", Brussels as best feminine artist
May 2018 Official release of the CD "My Voice is my Plea", GAM Records, Brussels.
2020 "Where the Dusky Waters Sing", musical performance on a glass boat, Martinrou, Belgium.
2021 During the first lock-down: "La harpe buissonière", a mobile concert project on a trailer.
2022, tour with the "Grenzgänger" a project of the Greater Region, with concerts in Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg
CAREER
PROESSIONAL FORMATION
The story of my life could also have the title: “My home is where my harp is”.
Playing harp, however, does not only cause highest delights, but sometimes quite prosy dragging. Therefore, in former times, when I came back home from a concert at night, my father – while helping me getting my multi-string monster out of the car – used to sigh: “Couldn’t you have learned playing flute instead ?”
But the fact that there was a harp in my family was due to my grand-uncle, a painter who, during the National Socialist dictaturship in Germany, was a deserter and hided in the Alps for several years. Although he never was a legal resident during this time he had access to the rural population and learned playing the folk harp of this special region. The war being over, he came back to his homeland, the Palatinate in South Western Germany, and passed on his knowledge, as well as his harp, to my mother. It was from her I learned the basics of playing harp as well as singing. My paternal grandmother, who directed a travelling theatre all her life, brought the love for theatre into my family.
This may be why already during my studies, and despite of a foreign scholarship and the beginning of my career as a chamber musician, I missed an essential element: the creative combining of singing, playing, dancing, and composing. After my final examination as an orchestra harpist and a half year stay in Venezuela I founded my own ensemble with saxophone, bass and percussions. Our concerts and CD productions took us from Europe to the United States, as well as to Siberia and Brazil. During our work, which also included multimedia projects, we collaborated with renowned artists like Lokua Kanza, Markus Lüpertz, Bernard Tirtiaux, Galileo, Chiha, and many others.
Since 2006 I'm living in Belgium with the writer and glass artist Bernard Tirtiaux. I've founded the Harp Center Brussels, a venue for concerts, workshops and individual harp lessons (www.harpcenterbrussels) and the Peace Performance Train, a movement of international artists.
I am mother of two wonderful daughters, anne-Sophie Prins who is a committed figher for humn rights, working at the European Parliament and Luise Marie Maier, a psychologist, doing researches for peace processes in Syria and Irak. Both play the harp and sing, Anne-Sophie often joins my concerts as backing vocals. Since summer 2017 I'm the proud grand-mother of lovely Laura-Rosa Prins.
Awards:
-Preis für junge Songpoeten der Hanns-Seidl-Stiftung und des Bayrischen Rundfunks
-Golden Artistic Award, Brussels