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Hailed as an artist of “subtle control, careful focus and thorough professionalism,” by the Chronical Journal of Thunder Bay, and as “fiery and dynamic,” by The Walleye Magazine, Canadian Conductor MARIA FULLER demonstrates unparalleled energy and an infectious joy in her music-making. Admired for her diversity and breadth of abilities, she performs internationally as a conductor, pianist, trumpeter, and is also an acclaimed vocal coach, award-winning composer, and sought after arranger.

 

Selected by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Maria is one of several Canadian conductors to take part in a unique mentorship in Montrèal with him and the Orchestra Métropolitain. For the 24/25 season, Maria is a Resident Conductor at the Teatr Wielki w Łodzi, Poland, where she conducts several operatic and ballet productions, including Madama Butterfly, Hansel und Gretel and Turandot. This season she also works at the Narodní Divadlo, Prague. 

 

2025 marks Maria's second year as co-founder and Music Director of Ammolite Opera, in Calgary, Alberta. Together with co-founder Tayte Mitchell, they seek to highlight western Canadian talent and showcase operas by living composers.

In November 2023, Maria was a finalist and multi-award winner in the 11th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Conducting Competition, Poland,  garnering her multiple guest appearances as conductor and repetiteur in Europe.  She also represented Canada in the inaugural La Maestra International Conducting Competition, Paris, in 2021. Currently a conducting fellow of Tapestry Opera, Toronto, Maria assists and guest conducts over 25 orchestras and opera companies across Canada. Last season involved debut performances with the Victoria, Winnipeg, Kingston, and Hamilton orchestras, as well as with New Music Concerts Toronto, and Music Niagara Festival. She has also assisted at the Toronto Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, Pacific Opera Victoria, and Manitoba Opera. This season, she will have debut engagements with the Kamloops, Guelph, and Calgary symphony orchestras.
 

Maria studied conducting at CCM (College-Conservatory of Music) in Cincinnati under the intense mentorship of Mo. Mark Gibson.  She also has a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano from McGill University, a Masters of Music in Piano and an Artist Diploma in Operatic Coaching from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). In 2019, she was awarded the renown David Effron Conducting Fellowship at the Chautauqua Institute, NY, and also began a position as Resident Conductor and Chorus Master with the Thunder Bay Symphony and Chorus.

 

Prior to conducting, Maria performed with orchestras as soloist, pianist, and trumpeter. She has also studied, competed and worked extensively as a solo pianist, collaborator, and opera coach. Several highlights include her album, "Great Southern Land," which was released under the Navona Recording Label with Yamaha Artist Philip Chase Hawkins, and her recording of "Der Erlkönig" with Canadian bass baritone Philippe Sly, which has made her a YouTube sensation. Often compared with the Jessye Norman and Fischer-Dieskau/Gerald Moore renditions available online, her rendition is played at major conservatories across the world.

 

In 2016, Maria was selected as apprentice vocal coach at the Banff Centre, and in 2020 she won the keyboard placement for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Her involvement with the Franz Schubert Institute and the Mozarteum has garnered her recital appearances across Austria, including at the Beethoven Haus. Maria has performed for pianist Lang-Lang, Lee Kum-Sing, André Laplanté, Julius Drake, Helmut Deutsch, and for singers Robert Holl, Barbara Bonney, Elly Ameling.

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Already at a very young age, Maria showed musical predisposition. Before the age of five, she imitated on the piano that of which she heard on the radio and thus displayed a unique strength of her inner ear, and a special connection to music. Her tendency towards musical creation lent itself very quickly to composition when at the age of eight she wrote, competed and was awarded for her first composition. At the age of six she began formal studies in piano, trumpet, and theory, and also started performing on trumpet as the principal chair in the Regina Lions Band for concert band, and marched her first band show with drill. At the age of 12, she performed her first symphony, Dvorak Symphony No. 9, on the trumpet with the South Saskatchewan Youth Orchestra, beside her sister Natalie Fuller. By age 15, Maria had won thrice the top prize for all of brass 16-and-under in Saskatchewan, and received the RCM medal for highest mark in the province twice. On the piano, Maria has won the Grand Award for the entire Provincial Music Festival, and received second prize twice at the National Finals in Canada (FCMF). She also received second prize at the CCM and CFMTA National Finals, and first prize at the Gordon Wallace, and Schummiature Competitions. One of her more recent compositions, “Fractals. No. 1 RESOLUTION,” recently won an award at the Women Composing for Trumpet Competition, in Texas. As a chamber musician, with her piano trio "Geistrio," Maria was a semifinalist at the renown Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and at the Plowman Competition in the USA. 

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When she can, Maria enjoys arranging and composing. Her holiday arrangements are beginning to be performed by ensembles across North America. Her new oratorio, "The Return of the Messiah," featuring text from the original Messiah, will be premiered in Calgary, December 2025.

 

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