Maria was fortunate enough to have grown up in a musical family. Her father was a professional clarinetist, and so he taught her this instrument. She also played the violin (as well as piano, of course)!
Maria entered a school for music at the age of 8. She would take a long subway ride every day after her regular school to get there, and spent her evenings studying and enjoying music. This school was associated with the national University (UNAM, Mexico), which is the largest university in Latin America. You could take as many courses as you like, and carry right on into the University with your music studies. The fees for the school were very little, which means that more people who loved music could have access to it. The opportunity to participate in many different classes is very benefial for becoming a more well-rounded musician and pianist. Chamber music, harmony, violin, clarinet, history and so on … these are all so helpful in becoming better at whichever instrument you choose to focus on.
Maria had several piano teachers, but Leopoldo Gonzales was the first really influential one. She began studying with him at 18 years old.
Now, the beginning of her performing experience. Maria sang in a choir on television at the age of 9! Her first formal concert was at 10 years old, with a youth orchestra. She played Bach-Vivaldi for 4 pianos. I was shocked when she told me this, because normally students start by playing a 30-second beginner solo in a recital. Not a 4-piano work with orchestra! But for Maria, it was nothing out of the ordinary. She had been playing with this youth orchestra for quite some time, but not the piano… only every other instrument it contained! So to move to playing piano with them, her main instrument, it was no big deal for her. Again- wow!! The atmosphere in this orchestra was very casual and fun, which made performing feel so much more natural and less stressful for everyone. They had free concerts all the time, and the kids were motivated by playing music with and for each other. Being part of a musical community really makes a world of difference, especially for children. It’s too bad we don’t have more of these types of things here in Canada!
Here’s the work she performed at the age of 10:
Bach Concerto for 4 Pianos BWV 1065
Maria originally went to university for international relations. Later, one of her brothers (a mathematician) applied to go to school in Russia. He encouraged her to apply over there as well, so she completed the application requirements in a week in order to meet the deadline! At that time, Russian pianists were dominating the music scene, so of course she wanted to go. Some of her friends had already gone there to study violin. After she was accepted, she had one month to prepare to leave for Russia. When she arrived in the country, she spent 5 days in a hotel without a piano, then was brought to the conservatory and informed there was an entrance exam she would need to be ready for in 2 days. They would choose 4 of 40 foreigner piano students to be accepted. What a whirlwind!! 🤯
Maria studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory for one year. It is a huge honour to be accepted into this school. The program is gruelling, to say the least. She was practicing 5-8 hours a day just to keep up with the performance aspect, and had a few other classes as well. This sounds difficult enough, but when you consider the fact that she knew zero words from the Russian language when she arrived there, and all of her classes were taught in Russian… WOW! It’s a miracle she survived! The classes were in Russian ‘for foreigners,’ so that made it a little bit easier. But still! And she had to take 6 hours a day of Russian language classes in the first year. How many hours are there in a day again? 😅
After one year, she moved over to the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia. By then she was less uncomfortable with the language, and the environment of this was a more enjoyable situation for her. Nadia M. Esmot was her main teacher in Russia, the one who truly helped her to understand the music and how to perform it. She helped her to develop by understanding where she was at and building up from there. She was the one who was able to get through to her and help her rise up. Isn’t that just exactly what we all need?! ❤️