German conductor Maria Benyumova
„is highly skilled conductor, has great attitude to work with both singers and orchestra and comports herself with the highest degree of personal and musical integrity“
(Mihkel Kuetson)
In the 2024-25 Season Maria Benyumova will make her debut with the Brazilian Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra, the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, the South Westphalia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra and the Munich Symphony Orchestra.
Following her successful debut with the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra at the beginning of last season, she was engaged as assistant to chief conductor Simon Gaudenz for the recording of Mahler’s 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th symphonies and will return to the podium of this orchestra in the 2024-25 season.
Last season, she took over the direction of the ballet production DanceWorks Chicago with the Bergische Symphonic Orchestra and was re-invited for another ballet production with the Atlantic Ballet Company in the current season.
Maria Benyumova was recently selected in The Dallas Opera Hart Institute for Women Conductors 2023-24. She has also been honoured as a Britten Pears Young Artist 2023-24 in collaboration with the Royal Opera House. She was one of 12 conductors funded by the Carlos Miguel Prieto Conducting Fellowship and Mentee Conductor of the American TAKI-Alsop Fellowship mentoring program.
Until 2022 she worked as a conductor and choral director at Theater Krefeld and Mönchengladbach. During this time, she conducted a wide range of operatic repertoire: Die Fledermaus, Die Zauberflöte, Norma, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Cavalleria Rusticana, Gianni Schicchi, Un ballo in Maschera and others. She led the Niederrheinische Symphoniker in masterworks of the choral literature such as Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Beethoven’s Mass in C major, Schubert’s Mass in E-flat major and conducted many ballet productions.
Maria is the first guest conductor of the Krasnoyarsk Chamber Orchestra, where she focuses on works of the classical-romantic chamber music repertoire. Highlights of this collaboration include annual concerts as part of the Europe-Siberia-Asia Festival with renowned soloists, such as pianist Eliso Virsaladze and accompaniment of violin virtuosos by the Viktor Tretiakov International Violin Competition.
Maria has been sponsored by the Conductors’ Forum of the German Music Council, the Bavarian Radio Choir Forum, the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, and the Liselotte Klein Foundation. She has worked with the RIAS Chamber Choir, NDR Choir, Bavarian Radio Choir and Choir Komische Oper Berlin. She studied orchestral and choral conducting at the Folkwang University Essen and the University for Music and Theater Munich.