Born in Russia and raised in the USA, Maria Ioudenitch began studying the violin because there were just too many pianists in the house. Her pianist parents, Stanislav and Tatiana, handed her a tiny violin at the age of 3, and the rest is history. Maria burst into the international spotlight in 2021, when she received first prizes in three major competitions – the Ysaÿe International Music Competition, the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition and the Joseph Joachim International Competition. Numerous performances around the globe are following. March 2023 sees the release of Maria’s debut album “Songbird”. Together with pianist Kenny Broberg, she has chosen a lyrical programme, inspired – as the album’s title suggests – by song. It brings together music by 19th and 20th century composers from western Europe, Russia and the USA: Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Nadia Boulanger, Amy Beach, Tchaikovsky, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Glinka, Schubert, and Strauss (the sublime song ‘Morgen’, for which Ioudenitch and Broberg are joined by the German soprano Theresa Pilsl). Maria explains: “I wanted to highlight the special relationship between the voice – my ultimate inspiration – and the violin, while introducing rarely heard works and sharing another side of the ones we already know and love.”