Mezzo-Soprano Mariya Kaganskaya is excited to begin her graduate studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, in the studio of Catherine Cook. Mariya earned her Bachelor’s in three years, magna cum laude, at UC San Diego, where she studied with Philip Larson.
Mariya has performed the full roles of Cornelia in Giulio Cesare and Volupia in Cavalli’s L’Egisto, the partial roles of Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Romeo (I Capuletti e i Montecchi), and Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), and scenes as the titular character of La Cenerentola, Idamante in Idomeneo, Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia, the Countess and Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro, and the Third Lady and Third Spirit in Die Zauberflöte. Her chorus work includes John Adams’ A Flowering Tree with Riverside Lyric Opera, and Les pêcheurs de perles, Die Fledermaus, and Il Trovatore with Opera San José.
A former section leader of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Mariya has sung with the La Jolla Symphony Chorus and the UCSD Chamber Singers, where she was a soloist in Fauré’s Requiem, Duruflé’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Handel’s Messiah. She was featured in János Négyesy‘s Soirée for Music Lovers series, collaborating with Négyesy and Päivikki Nykter; other notable collaborations have been with Professors John Fonville and Philip Larson. The 2012 winner of the Bertram Turetzky Award for exceptional participation within the music department and community by an undergraduate performer, Mariya was also a founding member of the Treble Singers and the founding Artistic Director of Undergrads for Opera at UCSD, a student organization dedicated to the performance and enjoyment of classical vocal repertoire.
An avid performer of contemporary classical music, Mariya has premiered works by Ilya Demutsky, Philip Skaller, Diarmid Flatley, Samara Rice, and Frank S. Li. She is currently working with acclaimed composer Elinor Armer on a song cycle to be premiered early next year.
Fluent in Russian, French, and English, proficient in Spanish, and with some background in Italian and Yiddish, Mariya is also interested in writing, and recently provided Russian-English translations for a recital series given by Baritone Dimitri Hvorostovsky.
To contact Mariya, please e-mail mariyakaganskaya [at] gmail [dot] com.