Maru Vasquez was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, where she began percussion studies at age 7 and piano at age 8. She trained as a percussionist in “El Sistema”, becoming part of several orchestras throughout her youth, until joining the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in 2007. Additionally, she performed with them as a soloist in Jorge Sarmientos’ Concertino for Marimba and Orchestra in 2013, as part of her Masters in Music (percussion) at Simon Bolivar University. The same year, she finished her piano studies at Lino Gallardo Music School. Maria is a very versatile musician who has performed both as a percussionist and as a pianist in solo and chamber music concerts in major venues in Caracas. She also took part in several national and international tours with the orchestra and percussion ensembles, playing in Costa Rica, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK. She had participated in masterclasses with pianists Abraham Abreu, Luisa Elena Paesano, Elena Ashkenazy, Phillip Fowke, Aleksander Szram, Peter Donohoe, Dina Parakhina, Alexander Romanovsky, Mikhail Kazakevich and Jeremy Young. In 2015 she graduated with a Master of Music in Instrumental Performance (piano) from Birmingham Conservatoire, after studying with John Thwaites, Anthony Hewitt and Jan Loeffler. Now she studies jazz piano in Paris under the guidance of Valerie Benzaquine at Jean Wiener Conservatoire. Maria also graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry in 2008 from Simon Bolivar University.
