Maya Consuelo Sternel never just wanted to play other people's music. She started as a drummer and keyboardist in various bands and spent over 15 years working as a DJ. Because she wanted to realize her own music herself, she completed an audio engineering diploma.
Maya Consuelo Sternel
- Berlin Germany
Right after that, she spent two years in New York as an engineer assistant at Unique Recording Studios on Times Square, in the middle of studio sessions with Run DMC, Coolio and Tricky.
After a DJ gig in Berlin, she met one of Ableton's founders the next morning — before the software even existed. He showed her the very first prototype of the program that would later become Ableton Live and let her try it out. In 2009, Ableton approached her directly and asked if she wanted to join the first certification round for trainers — which made her the world's first Ableton Certified Trainer.
Staying musically active remains part of who she is: only someone who's still producing really knows what's happening in music right now. As Donna Maya, she creates atmospheric, narrative and tension-filled techno, combining electronic sound design with theremin. She releases internationally, composes film music, including Fatih Akin's "Kurz und Schmerzlos," and performs turntable concerts with chamber orchestra. She has been a guest at transmediale in Berlin, at Sónar in Barcelona and at Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Since 2020, she has run the label Sound Sister Records.
In 2012, she founded UPSTART Electronic Music Education. Two motivations came together: a German-language course built consistently around what participants actually needed, not a rigid curriculum, and the freedom to keep combining DJ gigs, concerts and teaching engagements across Europe with running a course. Her online course "Ableton Live Complete," with personal mentoring, solved both at once and has been a state-recognized (ZFU-approved) distance-learning program since 2012.
In the course, she never dictates how a track should sound; instead, she teaches the tools and workflows that let each person develop their personal creativity and translate their own ideas into music.
She shares her knowledge beyond the course, too: as the author of the book "Beat Programmierung" (quickstart Verlag) and through regular contributions to the magazine Beat. From 2019 to 2022, she led the Berlin chapter of Beats by Girlz; from 2014 to 2024, she co-ran the Ableton User Group Berlin with Brian Smith.
Anyone learning with UPSTART today is learning from a trainer who still makes music herself, once held one of the very first test versions of Ableton Live, and knows exactly what it feels like to go from a first idea to a finished track.
Please note: Ableton Certified Trainers and Ableton Certified Training Centers are private entities or enterprises and neither employees nor agents of Ableton. They are not administered by Ableton AG, Ableton Inc. or Ableton KK. The trainers and centers are solely responsible for their own course offerings and curricula. Ableton takes no responsibility or liability for the actions of the trainers or centers.