Marika Kuzma
I have enjoyed a multifaceted career as a conductor, university professor, and music scholar, leading concerts in prestigious venues, collaborating with renowned artists, teaching one-on-one, publishing articles and books. Each aspect of my work informs the other, and I aim to create beautiful, meaningful, and memorable experiences with singers, instrumentalists, and fellow artists for varied audiences.
As a Conductor, I have led performances of professional and amateur ensembles across the Americas. While leading choirs at the University of California, my repertoire ranged from the chants of Hildegard to the Bach B minor Mass to the Verdi Requiem to Stravinsky Les noces to premieres of works by current composers. Among the venues where I have performed are Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA; the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy; Stephansdom in Vienna, Austria. In recent years, I have guest conducted the Cape Cod Symphony, a Handel Messiah in North Carolina, and a concert of varied works in Argentina.
Today, I am interested in creating events that combine various art forms and raise awareness of societal issues. Given the current war and my Ukrainian heritage, I have led many concerts of Ukraine’s music and poetry with my professional chamber choir Ensemble Cherubim and with choirs including the St. Joseph’s Cathedral Schola in Hartford and Cappella Romana in Portland and Seattle.
As a Chorus Master, I have prepared choirs for leading conductors of my generation and the next. In 2024, Keri-Lynn Wilson asked me to coach a choir for a performance at Zankel Hall with the Kyiv Camerata. Subsequently, Peter Gelb invited me to prepare choirs for concerts of Beethoven 9 with the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra under Maestra Wilson at St. John the Divine NYC and the Kennedy Center. Earlier, I collaborated with Gustavo Dudamel (Simon Bolivar Orquesta); the Mark Morris Dance Group; Nicholas McGegan (Philharmonia Baroque); Kent Nagano (Orchestre symphonique de Montréal), and others.
My own concerts as well as collaborations have received enthusiastic reviews in the New York Times, Le Devoir, Opera News, San Francisco Chronicle, and others.
As a choral music scholar and explorer, I have published articles in journals such as the Journal of Musicology, Choral Journal, and Musik und Kirche, made recordings on the Bridge, Koch, and Naxos labels, and given lectures internationally. Ukrainian choral music is my expertise, I have published extensively on D. Bortniansky and recently published the book Carols of Birds, Bells, and Sacred Hymns from Ukraine. It has received acclaim from esteemed choral directors and the historian Serhii Plokhy, and I have given talks at various universities and community centers to share this little-known repertoire and the unique, inspiring history surrounding it. My recording of Ukrainian carols with Ensemble Cherubim will be released this year.
As a Choral Clinician I’ve been invited to coach college, community, and high school choirs, offering advice in vocal technique, style, and interpretation for concerts and competitions. I have also enjoyed coaching singers and conductors in the private studio and zoom setting. For twenty-five years, I worked one-on-one with students at the University of California, Berkeley, where I taught conducting and supervised its vocal performance program. Some of my former students are soloists on major stages; some conduct symphony, choral, and opera performances around the world. On occasion, singers as well as actors have sought my help with French, German, and Ukrainian diction. Since I grew up bilingual (Ukrainian-American) in a multi-ethnic neighborhood and have worked internationally, I speak (and love) several languages.
Inhale.
I received my earliest musical training at home—my family sang together constantly—and at the Hartt School of Music in violin and voice. My love of music led me to study at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Salzburg Mozarteum; Vienna Hochschule für Musik; Stanford University; and attain a doctorate in choral conducting from Indiana University. I also studied as an orchestral conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival. My voice teachers have included Jane Randolph and Marilyn Taylor. My music conducting/directing mentors included Thomas Binkley, Jan Harrington, Gustav Meier, Robert Porco, and Paul Vermel.
I believe my unique voice and success as a musician stems from my training as both a singer and instrumentalist, both choral and orchestral conductor, my sensitivity to languages and cultures, and (in the last decade) my experience as an actor onstage and in film. Each of these helps bring the music fully to life in performance.
Exhale.
After almost thirty years living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area, I returned to my home state Connecticut a few years ago.
I look forward to meeting you and making music with you—on either coast. Please feel free to be in touch for collaborations great and small.
New Inspiration.