Mariya Orlenko

Pianist

Ukrainian-Canadian pianist Mariya Orlenko is pursuing her Masters of Music in Piano Performance at the University of Toronto under the tutelage of Lydia Wong. She received her Bachelor of Music Degree at the Glenn Gould School, where she studied with John Perry and David Louie, and was the proud recipient of The Ihnatowycz Emerging Artist Scholarship. Growing up in Vancouver, Mariya studied with Marina Navrotski, Donna Fishwick, and Ian Parker.

Mariya received the Grand Prize in the Canadian Music Competition, and has won top prizes in the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition and the OSM Manulife Competition. Most recently, she was one of the winners of The Hnatyshyn Foundation Ukraine-Heritage, Spirit and Future Grant (2022). In 2016, she was a quarterfinalist in the Arthur Rubinstein International Youth Piano Competition in Beijing, and in 2017, she was a semifinalist at the Aarhus International Piano Competition. Mariya has performed with orchestras across North America, including Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Virginia Waring Festival Orchestra, Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra, North York Concert Orchestra, Oakville Chamber Orchestra, and Kindred Spirits Orchestra. Mariya was the recipient of the Royal Conservatory Provincial and National Gold Medals in 2013 and 2017. She performed a recital as a part of the COC Free Concert Series in 2017, and in the Beethoven Extravaganza Concert as a part of the Concerts at 100 Series in 2020. Mariya was a keyboardist in the Royal Conservatory Orchestra in the 2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/20 seasons. In 2020, Mariya was the proud recipient of The Hnatyshyn Foundation Emerging Artist Scholarship.

Mariya is the founder of The Efficient Musician, a company that aims to promote music education and help young artists achieve their full potential. In a recent collaboration with The Royal Conservatory of Music, Mariya designed custom practice planners as prizes for the Music Lights the Way Piano Festival. The practice planners were also distributed to students of The Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists and The Oscar Peterson School of Music.

Mariya has performed for world-renowned artists including Yoheved Kaplinsky, Robert McDonald, Leon Fleisher, Dang Tai Sun, John O’Conor, Sara Davis Buechner, Andre LaPlante, Idith Zvi, Ian Fountain, and Ori Shihor.