About Mariana

Mariana received a scholarship to the Saint Petersburg State Music School for gifted and talented children at age 6, and nine years later she graduated with honours. She later studied at the Saint Petersburg State Musical College and State University of Art and Culture, and graduated with honours in Bachelor of Music Teaching and Bachelor of Music, Theatre Directing and Performing.

Mariana plays piano, guitar, accordion, recorder, and the Russian folk instruments domra and balalaika. She has conducted and accompanied choirs, and has extensive performing, directing and composing experience in live theatre, including performances as a singer and actress in plays such as Snow White, Medea, Thumbelina, Snow Queen.

She has been teaching piano, guitar and voice since 1989, and when she taught at the Modern Music Lessons School in Sydney CBD, she had the highest retention rate of all the teachers.

Mariana played with the Sydney Balalaika Orchestra between 2007 and 2009, and performed with them at the National Folk Festival. In 2008 she was offered a permanent time slot on SBS Russian Radio, where she had been reviewing films, performances, concerts and exhibitions in her broadcast "Art-Review".

She has accompanied the St Scholastica's College Choir including their performance at Angel Place, and worked as a piano tutor at Monte Sant' Angelo Mercy College. Mariana has performed at the Illawarra Folk Festival with her band Ethnodelica, has released two albums, and has been filmed for Australian Television.

She has been performing with Playback Theatre Sydney as the lead musician since 2011 and has been lecturing at Macquarie University since 2014.

Mariana teaches piano (and Music Theory for those taking the AMEB exams) at her studio in Baulkham Hills. She also gives private lessons at students homes in the Hills area.

Under her tuition, some of her students have been accepted at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Australian Institute of Music, and Newtown High School Of Performing Arts.

Her main goal is to develop her students understanding and nurture their love of music.