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Canadian Conductor MARIA FULLER is one of Canada’s captivating musical personalities. Described as a polymath, Maria performs internationally as a conductor, trumpeter, and pianist and is also an acclaimed vocal coach, award-winning composer and sought after arranger. She conducts symphonic, ballet and operatic repertoire, and is also a thoughtful curator of family and educational programs, and an arranger and composer of fresh cinematic music containing a “new baroque” twist. Last December her oratorio “The Christmas Messiah” had its world premier in Calgary with Ammolite Opera and she continues to work on commissions while traveling. In all that she does, Maria “radiates energy” (Ruch Muzyczny) and is gaining a reputation on the podium for her “vivid imagination, energetic personality” (Kalejdoskop) “precise gesture, and sensitivity to detail” (Ruch Muzyczny).   

She is currently the Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Belgium, as well as the Founding Music Director of Ammolite Opera, Calgary, with whom she has received four Betty Mitchell Award nominations after two years of existence. Her highlights from last season include several productions at the Teatr Wielki w Łodzi, Poland, a mentorship with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitan, and working at the Narodní Divadlo, Prague, as a Finalist Prize from the 11th Grzegorz Fitelberg International Conducting Competition, Poland. This season her debuts are with the Filharmonia Opolska, Okanagan Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Rochester Philharmonic, and the Rocky Mountain Symphony. This February, Maria looks forward to performing the music of Bach on piano across western Canada with CBC Radio Host Tom Allen on his show: “J.S Bach’s Long Walk.”
 

Last March, Maria was featured in Opera Canada as "Artist of the Week" in recognition of both her passion for opera, and of her new opera company Ammolite Opera, based in Calgary, which she co-founded with Artistic Director Tayte Mitchell. Past accolades include representing Canada in the inaugural La Maestra International Conducting Competition, Paris, after only two years of conducting classes. 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. In 2020, she joined the Conducting Advisory Circle of Tapestry Opera, Toronto. She has worked with the Rochester, Regina, Saskatoon, Victoria, Winnipeg, Kingston, Hamilton, Toronto, Guelph, Kamloops, Okanagan, Nova Scotia and Calgary symphonies as well as with New Music Concerts Toronto, Music Niagara Festival, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Pacific Opera Victoria, Saskatoon Opera, and Manitoba Opera.
 

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). 

 

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 Canadian Music Competition and Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Assocation 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 performed across North America. 

 

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