María Martínez Ayerza was born in 1982 in Cuenca (Spain), and here she started studying music. She received her recorder diploma "cum laude" at the Conservatory of Seville in 2000. Afterwards she moved to Amsterdam to continue studying with Paul Leenhouts. After graduating in may 2004 with a Bachelor in Music, Maria is currently following the Advanced Education Programme at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and studies Musicology at the University of Amsterdam.

María is co-founder of the Baroque quartet "La Sfera armoniosa", with whom she has toured Spain several times. In February 2001 she joined the double sextet of Renaissance recorders "The Royal Wind Music", conducted by Paul Leenhouts. With them, she has recorded two CDs and performed in several European countries. Her interest in contemporary music has lead her to work with several composers and in 2004 she co-founded the ensemble "ÆroDynamic" with Harma Everts (soprano) and Stephanie Brandt (recorders). During the last year and a half they have inspired several composers from all over the world to explore the sound colours of the voice and the recorder family.

María has published articles and reviews in the Spanish Recorder Magazine and was coordinator of the 1st European Recorder Performance Festival that took place in Amsterdam in October 2004.

Programme
HIROYUKI ITOH (*1963), Salamander II (1995)
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ANONYMOUS (Florence, early 14th century), Lauda: Vergen pulzella, per merzé
From: Florence Laudario, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence
LORENZO DA FIRENZE (+ 1372/3), Ballata: Non vedi tu, amore
From: Squarcialupi Codex, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
ANONYMOUS (c. 1400), Istanpitta Ghaetta
From: British Library, add. 29987
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ISANG YUN (1917-95), “The shepherd’s flute”, from Chinese Pictures (1995)
FRANCO DONATONI (1927-2000), Nidi II (1992)

Programme notes
Salamander crossing! combines two different sources of repertoire: Italian music from the trecento and contemporary pieces written during the latter years of the last century.

Nidi II by Franco Donatoni and Salamander II by Hiroyuki Itoh present two different viewpoints on the subject of technical difficulty. While Donatoni exhorts the performer to aim for ease and lightness, choosing the classical, abstract form of a theme with variations to portray this, Itoh states a single idea in which both player and audience combined must be absolutely and completely involved.

Vergen pulzella is a laude (song of praise) to the Virgin Mary, sung by the Congregation of the Holy Spirit in Florence during their evening services. Against this manifestation of popular devotion, Non vedi tu, amore and Ghaetta are fine examples of musical refinement created specifically for entertainment at the Italian courts during the fourteenth century. Non vedi tu is one of the few known monophonic ballate, highly expressive due to the use of long melismas. The melodies of istanpitte such as Ghaetta (named after a city near Naples) may have existed as part of an oral tradition many years before they were written down, and so their root remains uncertain.

The shepherd’s flute is the last piece of a collection inspired by the traditional Buddhist “Tales of the Ox and its Shepherd” that explore the way in which human beings (the shepherds) guide their inner child (the ox). Here Yun recreates the moment in which "the battle is already over. Gains and losses are no longer of any consequence either. The shepherd is sitting on the ox's back and gazing at the blue sky".