The child of a professor of Russian literature and a mathematician, Swedish pianist Maria Lettberg was born in Riga, Latvia, and began her musical studies at age 7. By age 9, she debuted in public with a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2. After studying at a Latvian school for musically gifted children, she was enrolled in the Petersburg Conservatory, where she graduated with distinction in the concert examination. Deciding against entering international competitions, which had seemed a natural career path for such a virtuoso, Lettberg instead pursued her musical development in academic programs, studying at the Royal College in Stockholm and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where she earned her doctorate in piano performance. Lettberg's teachers included Tatjana Zagorovskaja, Andrej Gavrilov, Paul Badura-Skoda, Menahem Pressler, Emanuel Krasovsky, Roland Pöntinen, and Matti Raekallio. In addition to an active schedule of radio broadcasts, orchestral concerts, and solo recitals, Lettberg has recorded the piano music of Finnish composer Erkki Melartin for Crystal Classics, and a critically praised set of the complete published solo piano works of Alexander Scriabin for Capriccio. She has also recorded piano music by Alfred Schnittke. Among Lettberg's favorite composers to program are Brahms, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, Ravel, Debussy, Mozart, Haydn, and Bach. Maria Lettberg has lived in Berlin for a number of years, and she speaks fluent Swedish, German, Russian, and English.