Mariya Mazur Udovenko was born into a musical family in Odessa, Ukraine. Her parents were both professors of music. Father Alfred Mazur taught piano and mother Iryna music theory and composition. Mariya’s perfect pitch and musical talent were recognized early, and she was admitted into the Stolyarski Music School for Gifted Children, from which she graduated with distinction. She attended the Odessa State Nezhdanova Conservatory where she earned a Bachelor of Music and Masters Degrees, each with distinction, in a total of four different musical specialties: Solo Piano Performance, Collaborative Performance (group performance), Piano Accompaniment, and Piano Pedagogy (teaching). A feat accomplished by only 3% of students.
Over the course of her career, Mariya has studied with some of the world’s leading musicians and teachers including Fiolita Richter and Serafima Mogilevskaya, both students of the legendary Henrich Neuhaus ( teacher of Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels). In addition, she has worked with Anatoliy Povzoun ( student of Ludmila Ginsburg and Pavel Serebryakov), and Dmitriy Bashkirov ( student of Alexander Goldenweiser). As a performer, Mariya has had a wide range of experience. She has won a number of piano competitions including The National Competition of Chamber Music in Kiev in 1987, and has given numerous performances in concert halls throughout Russia, the Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, the United States and Canada.
In 1990 Mariya was invited to serve as the principal accompanist for The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet, in Belgrade, where she was recognized as The Outstanding Piano Accompanist in both 1991 and 1992. In 1992 she earned an honorary title “The Artist Emeritus of Serbia” and was appointed the Music Director of Belgrade’s national ballet.
From 1988 to 1990 she was an Assistant Professor of Piano and Opera accompanist at the Odessa state Conservatory.
Mariya enjoys teaching students of all skill levels, from beginners to ARCT candidates, and professional players. For over 30 years, Mariya Udovenko’s students have gained recognition locally and internationally. Many have won prestigious awards at music festivals. Several of her top students have continued their studies in post- secondary institutions in Europe and North America and have gone on to professional careers in music.
Marcel F. Dvorak
Mariya has the very unique combination of being exceedingly pleasant, incredibly skilled as a musician while also displaying a great talent as a teacher. There are many teachers who are able to describe the mechanics of playing piano, however, Mariya adds an amazing ability to demonstrate and then effectively transmit to the student the musicality, or what makes a piece of music sound beautiful.
Mariya has been able to guide me, my wife and children through an amazing spectrum of music over the past few years and has always been able to find that point where our personal preferences are stimulated and we are challenged appropriately from a technical perspective.
Under Mariya’s guidance, I have played pieces that I thought were far beyond my abilities and have begun to recognize how to start to play them more musically in a way that emphasizes the melodic beauty that must have motivated the composer.
Mariya has an immense personal talent and appreciation of the beauty of the piano and she couples this with a very effective teaching style.
Marcel F. Dvorak, MD, FRCSC
Professor of Orthopaedics
Head, Division of Spine,
Cordula and Gunther Paetzold Chair in Spinal Cord Clinical Research
University of British Columbia
