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Marika Kuzma came to Montreal and the St. Lawrence Choir from the University of California, Berkeley where she was the director of choirs since 1990. While in Berkeley, she gained acclaim in the San Francisco Bay Area as a versatile conductor of choral and instrumental music. She led the university choirs in works ranging from the medieval Carmina Burana to Mozart , Verdi, Messiaen, and premieres of new works. She also guest directed the Oakland Symphony Chorus and has been a consultant to Chanticleer and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Outside of California, she has guest directed the the Handel Society of Dartmouth College, the University Singers at the University of Virginia, and various choruses across America. Her Berkeley choirs were often invited to perform with professional ensembles such as the Berkeley Symphony under Kent Nagano, Midsummer Mozart Festival under George Cleve, and Oakland East Bay Symphony under Michael Morgan. The UC Chamber Chorus has also collaborated with the Mark Morris Dance Group in premiere productions of Rameau Platée and, most recently, Purcell King Arthur, receiving enthusiastic reviews from the San Francisco Chronicle, Opera News, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.
In the realm of Early Music, Kuzma has been an assistant the late Thomas Binkley, has directed the Collegium at the Amherst Early Music Festival, has led a "chant-along" for the San Francisco Early Music Society at Grace Cathedral, and has prepared choirs for Nicholas McGegan and Jane Glover with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. In contemporary music, she has conducted world premieres and west-coast premieres of works by Karchin, Reich, Rockmaker, Rzewski, and Takemitsu with various new music ensembles. As an instrumental conductor, Kuzma has also conducted the Bay Area Women's Philharmonic, Berkeley Symphony, and the National Orchestra of Ukraine.
Ms. Kuzma began her music studies in voice and violin in Hartford, Connecticut at the Hartt School of Music, continuing at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Salzburg Mozarteum; and Vienna Hochschule für Musik. Her study of voice and art song lends a particular sensitivity to text and vocal inflection in her choirs. She studied orchestral conducting at the Aspen Summer Institute under Paul Vermel and at other summer programs with Volodymyr Kolesnyk and Gustav Meier. She received her doctorate in choral directing from Indiana University, studying with Jan Harrington and Robert Porco.
Of Ukrainian descent, Marika has a special affinity for Slavic choral music. Her dissertation on the music of Dmitry Bortniansky won the American Choral Directors Association Herford Prize. She has been invited to write articles for prestigious journals such as the Journal of Musicology and the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, to give talks at the Kiev and Moscow Conservatories, and has made recordings of music by various Slavic composers.
Discography
Armer and Leguin Uses of Music in Uttermost Parts (Koch International, 1995)
Icons of Slavic Music (Ameridisc, 1996 out of print)
Malkin and Stillwater Graceful Passages (Companion Arts, 2000)
Dufay Missa Ave regina celorum (Sanglier, 2003)
Of Songs and Seasons: a cappella works by Brahms and Lesia Dychko (2004)
Thow Cantico (Palatino, 2004)
Liderman Song of Songs (Bridge, 2005)
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