Maria Eklund

Since 2012, Eklund has been actively involved in KUPP – a unique professional body for female conductors in Sweden which works towards gender equality within the profession of classical orchestra conducting. This association publishes annual reports on statistics of male and female soloist and conductors in Sweden, touching the areas of Swedish vs foreign musicians and agencies represented in classical music life of Sweden. Due to their work a vast amount of questions moved into public discussions in media and political venues, including regular meetings with the leaders of the Departments of Culture and personally with the Minister of Culture in Sweden.

She gained a university degree in choir conducting and pedagogical training in subjects such as conducting at Master level at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, in the class of Viktor Krasnoshekov, and Gnesin's Music Academy, in the class of Galina Rozdestvenskaya (1992-1997). She took a postgraduate course at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in orchestral and choir conducting (1997-2000), in the class of Anders Eby and Jing Wang. She then took a postgraduate course at the Conservatory in Moscow as a conductor and pedagogic training as a teacher in symphony and opera conducting (2001-2003), in the class of Gennady Rozdestvensky. She has also attended master classes with Jorma Panula, Johannes Schlaefli, and Tzung Yea.

She attended secondary music school at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow (1988-1992) as a choir conductor and school teacher in music and conducting subjects. Her conducting teacher was Margarita Koroleva, and her piano teacher was None Khachaturjan, the daughter of the composer Aram Khachaturjan.

Maria Eklund (born 1973) is a Russian-born Swedish conductor. In 2005, she became the first woman to conduct an orchestra at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, breaking the barriers of what so far was a strictly male area of expertise. She conducted The Golden Cockerel by Rimsky-Korsakov.