Maria van der Sloot

Violin Instructor

Canadian violinist Maria van der Sloot enjoys a diverse career as a performer and educator. She has been a grand prizewinner in chamber music at the Canadian Music Competition and a finalist in the National Music Festival, and she has appeared as soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic and National Arts Centre Orchestra. She has performed extensively throughout North America, including for Music for Food, NPR’s From the Top, the Boston Symphony Prelude series, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Berkeley Piano Club, and the Calgary Philharmonic Emerging Artists series, and she has participated in the Banff, Orford, Tanglewood, and Morningside Music Bridge summer festivals. She has worked closely with members of the Cleveland, Borromeo, Concord, Kronos, St. Lawrence, Juilliard, and Telegraph Quartets and performed alongside artists including Dimitri Murrath, Pierre Amoyal, Eugene Izotov, James Ehnes, and Gil Kalish. She has worked with contemporary groups and composers, including Land’s End Ensemble, Mark-Anthony Turnage, and Vivian Fung.

Ms. van der Sloot received her B.M. (Honours) from the New England Conservatory of Music, as recipient of the Vernon Scholarship, and her M.M. (Distinction) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, as recipient of the Osher, Schorr, and Hoefer Scholarships. Her primary mentors include Donald Weilerstein, Ian Swensen, and Cordula Merks, and she is grateful for graduate support from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. In 2019, she joined the first violins of the Calgary Philharmonic and in 2020 was appointed concertmaster of the Calgary Civic Symphony. 

Ms. van der Sloot is equally passionate about education as performance. Her core teaching philosophy is based on the fundamental link between music, expression, play, and growth. Excellent musicianship requires curiosity, imagination, perseverance, and discipline; her private teaching style reflects the intersection of these elements and sets her students up for success both on and off the violin. Aside from her private teaching at MRU, she instructs the Senior Violin Masterclass and coaches chamber music for the Academy for Young Artists. She is additionally on faculty at the Valhalla Summer School of Music in British Columbia and El Sistema Calgary (Calgary Multicultural Orchestra), which provides accessible music education in underserved communities.

Private Lesson Rate: $94.50 per hour, $47.25 per half-hour.