Loyola University Chicago

Department of Fine and Performing Arts

Faculty and Staff Directory

Maria Sumareva, D.M.A.

Title/s:  Instructor of Piano and Chamber Music

Office #:  MUND 174

Phone: 773.508.7510

Email: msumareva@luc.edu

About

Moldovan-born pianist Maria Sumareva has been heard as a soloist and collaborative artist across Europe and the United States. After graduating the Republican Musical Lyceum “Ciprian Porumbescu” in her native city of Chisinau, she continued her studies in the United States. She holds a D.M.A. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Frost School of Music, as well as undergraduate and graduate degrees in piano performance from Rowan University and Indiana University-Bloomington. Her teachers and mentors in the U.S. have included Veda Zuponcic, Menahem Pressler, Naoko Takao, and Santiago Rodriguez.

Dr. Sumareva has performed at international festivals including Budapest Spring Festival (Hungary), Les Nuits Pianistiques, International Festival “Days of New Music” (Moldova), Northern Lights Music Festival, Festival Miami, and Festival Baltimore (U.S.A.). As a soloist with orchestra, she has appeared with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Moldova, National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova, and Rowan University Orchestra, with conductors Jean-Bernard Pommier, Christoff Escher, Didier Talpain, Salvatore Scarpa, Valentin Doni, Mihail Secikin, and Oleg Palymsky. Her live performances have been broadcast on Moldovan, Romanian, and Hungarian radio and television stations.

Dr. Sumareva’s repertory reflects her versatile musical interests spanning from Baroque to newly composed works. Winning the 2013 Graduate Presser Music Award at the University of Miami made possible her recording debut with “The 35 Keyboard Sonatinas by J.A. Benda” (the first recording of the complete set; Élan Recordings, 2015), praised for exhibiting “a wide variety of touch,” “a lot of wit” and “great musicality” (Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine).

An avid advocate for new music and living composers, Dr. Sumareva is a co-founder and Chair of Board of Directors of Kaleidoscope MusArt, Inc. - a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting classical music as a relevant and evolving art form, through innovative concert programs and educational initiatives that explore links between new, rarely-heard, and well-known works.

Previously a piano faculty member at Rowan University and Frost Preparatory Program at the University of Miami, Dr. Sumareva has given masterclasses and adjudicated auditions and competitions at various institutions and festivals including University of Miami, Rowan University, Festival Baltimore at UMBC, and Northern Lights Music Festival. Dr. Sumareva is thrilled to have joined Loyola University as an instructor in piano and chamber music in Spring 2020.

Degrees

D.M.A., Piano Performance and Pedagogy, Frost School of Music

M.M., Piano Performance, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music

B.M. in Piano Performance, Rowan University