Niels Lan Doky: Mayte's Dream

Pianist and composer Niels Lan Doky's fiancée, Mayte Garcia, prefers to fall asleep to music that lowers the heart rate and creates calm. To give her reassurance, Niels recorded a series of improvised solo piano pieces exclusively for her — small musical moments created in the present, with no thought for the public. But the presence and serene timbre of the recordings struck something special with Mayte, who encouraged him to share the music so that others could also be led into its gentle, dreamy universe.

“It's the softest, slowest, most intimate thing I've ever played,” Niels tells Lan Doky. “Composing is, in fact, improvisation in slow motion — an alluring journey in which each note either leads to or chooses the next. Playing with my fiancee's dream state in mind and hitting her heart was a deep and beautiful experience for me.”

The finished album, Mayte's Dream, will be released in 2026 and contains 18 tracks with reflective, dreamy piano music. The album stands as a testimony to the intimate power of creation and the beauty found in silence.

The first part of the concert will consist of new, improvised solo-piano music in the same intimate spirit as the new album, created spontaneously in the moment. The second part will consist of solo-piano editions of a selection of Doky's most famous compositions. Familiar tunes reinterpreted in their purest and most personal form.