Ep. 114: Maria Seletskaja, conductor & former principal soloist with international ballet companies

Let's Talk Off The Podium

Ep. 114: Maria Seletskaja, conductor & former principal soloist with international ballet companies.

Let's Talk Off The Podium with Tigran Arakelyan.

In this podcast we talk about Maria's journey from a principal soloist with major ballet companies to a professional conducting career. She also talks about her family and work balance, passion for the violin, and much more!

Estonian born Maria Seletskaja enjoyed 15 years on the international ballet stage as principal soloist with the Royal Ballet of Flanders, Staatsballett Berlin, Zürich Ballet and Estonian National Ballet. Parallel to her dancing career, Maria continued her musical studies both privately and at the Berklee College of Music (Boston USA) and, by 2013, was ready to start conducting piano rehearsals at her company of the time - the Royal Ballet of Flanders.

Since 2016 Maria Seletskaja’s experience as a conductor has naturally developed into a full time career. She was invited to be assistant to the music director of Casco Phil (former Flemish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra) and received a similar invitation one year later from the Stuttgart Ballet. In 2018 she conducted her Stuttgart premiere to great acclaim in the ballet La Fille mal gardée ( Herold / Ashton), which was followed by performances of Mayerling(Liszt / MacMillan). She also made her conducting debuts at the National Ballet of Georgia and Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra and was selected as one of five participants for a conducting course with Paul Murphy at the Royal Opera House in May 2019.

From October 2019 Maria Seletskaja is Conductor-in-Residence for one season at the National Ballet of Canada to conduct performances of Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, and several others.

In the season 2020-21 Maria will return to the National Ballet of Canada and will make her debut with the Ballet Santiago de Chile in their production of The Sleeping Beauty.

Alongside her professional engagements Maria continues her musical studies, concentrating on broadening her repertoire to include a wider range of both orchestral and operatic repertoire. Amongst her most influential teachers Maria counts James Tuggle (music director Stuttgart Ballet, Stuttgart Opera House) and Rodolfo Saglimbeni.

A regular attendee of the Järvi Academy Maria, has also benefitted from personal advice and guidance from Paavo Järvi. In December 2019, Maria had a chance to follow maestro Järvi for two weeks during his work with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

For more information about Maria Seletskaja please visit: https://mariaseletskaja.com/

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