About Maria
I enjoy a varied career as a freelance performer and private instructor based in Portland, Maine. As a classically trained clarinetist, I frequently appear with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and sit as second/bass clarinet in the Maine State Ballet Orchestra. I also enjoy performing occasionally with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Opera Maine, Maine State Music Theatre, and the Oratorio Chorale.
I specialize in the performance of new solo and chamber music and am passionate about interpreting brand new works and expanding the edges of classical music. I enthusiastically perform in the Vigorous Tenderness concert series and projects with Classical Uprising. I have premiered pieces for the clarinet and bass clarinet at numerous new music festivals, including the Portland Conservatory of Music's Contemporary Music Festivals, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music's New Music Collective Concerts in Brooklyn, NY, and the Composer's Voice Concert Series in New York City.
In 2021, I joined the neofolk chamber ensemble Forêt Endormie, and recorded on their 2023 full length album "Le désepoir utopique."
The group was awarded the Sonic Visions grant which funded a 2025 premier of a song-cycle exploring the displacement of the Acadian peoples with a setting of the words of Acadian poets.​
I earned a Bachelors and Masters of Music in Performance from the University of Southern Maine, where I studied clarinet, bass clarinet, and pedagogy with Dr. Thomas Parchman. During that time I received the Bay Chamber Competition's Summer Music Woodwind Solo Prize for excellence in chamber music performance. Other influential teachers I have had the priviliege to study with include New York clarinetist Jo-Ann Sternberg, oboist and chamber music coach Neil Boyer, and conductor Dr. Peter Martin.
I continue my study now in classical and folk music from the Middle East with special focus on Arabic maqamat (melodic modes), iqa'at (rhythmic modes), and the art of taqsim (improvisation). I attend Simon Shaheen's world-renowned Arabic Music Retreats where I have studied the nay flute intensely with Bassam Saba and ethnomusicologist Dr. Ali Jihad Racy. I perform with Jawahir Arabic Music Ensemble, and in 2023 I co-founded the Maine Arabic Music Community Group which meets monthly to study and play Arabic Music repertoire. Formerly, I was a founding member of Zapion (2010 - 2020) in which I played folk, classical and art music from Turkish and Arabic traditions on clarinet and nay.
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I joyfully maintain my private teaching studio in Portland, ME and online. I am the clarinet instructor and chamber music coach for the Southern Maine Music Academy and Portland Youth Wind Ensemble both at the University of Southern Maine, and am on applied music faculty at Bates College.
Projects
Forêt Endormie
Maine Arabic Music Community Group
A community group that meets monthly to study and play instrumental and vocal music of the Arab world. Contact me for more info!
Other Recordings
Recorded clarinet and nay on the soundtrack for the walking simulator video game Hidden Treasures and the Forest of Dreams, released in 2021.
Chamber Music
Martin Perry, piano
Live performance at the Portland Conservatory of Music's Contemporary Music Festival; March 11, 2010
Benjamin Heller, piano
Live performance in Corthell Hall at the University of Southern Maine; March 6, 2009
Former Projects
Zapion Middle Eastern Ensemble
Classical and folk music from the Arabic, Turkish, and Armenian traditions.
Swan Kirtan
Multi-faith devotional call and response chanting ensemble, more info here.
