MAYA CIRING
Maya Ciring Walsh is a Calgary based violinist and violist who began playing at just 2 and a half years old during the early 1980’s when the Suzuki method was introduced to the Calgary violin community. Co-taught by her mother Danuta Ciring (who taught many top Canadian students who went on to have successful careers on the international stage) and CPO’s Kathryn Corvino, Maya participated in the Academy program at Mount Royal, competed frequently at the Kiwanis
Music Festival, and completed examinations through the Royal Conservatory of Music by age
12. Switching to viola during her teens, she participated and toured with the Calgary Youth Orchestra. Maya began teaching violin at 16 years old and continues to this day.
Maya completed a Bachelor of Arts with Major in Humanities and Minor in Music Performance
in viola from the University of Calgary in 2006. She then moved to Vancouver in 2008 and formed and fronted a Klezmer/Punk (Yiddish folk music blended with punk rock) ensemble, The
Chutzpastics, performing at numerous events and venues, while also recording, performing, and touring with other various local indie, rock, metal and punk bands from Vancouver and Calgary. Returning to Calgary in 2012, Maya worked as a document control specialist and marketing manager in the Oil and Gas industry but returned to teaching after the birth of her daughter. Maya teaches privately out of her mother’s home studio and specializes in setting up young beginners via the Suzuki method, of which she received training in and holds a SAA membership. Maya’s students also participate in RCM examinations, and once they finish their diplomas, she coaches them to teach beginners and helps them set up their own teaching practice, continuing to mentor them as the years go on. In 2018, Maya, along with her former teacher and dear family friend Kathryn Corvino formed the North Calgary String Academy (NCSA), based at St. Giles Presbyterian Church in the NW quadrant. The Academy specializes in coaching Chamber music ensembles, with a focus on small group to coach ratio, ensuring high quality instruction and strong ensemble skills in young players.
Maya is currently completing her MA of Education at the University of Calgary, writing her thesis on Trauma Informed Nature-Based Expressive Arts Interventions to support mental health in youth and as counterhegemonic action. She plans to design programming for Artist Residencies in school classrooms based on this research. She also freelances, interested mainly in projects that are unique and collaborative, most recently performing with the Key 30 Orchestra – an independent orchestra that performs original compositions by its members. Maya is pictured in her bio with her paternal grandmother Irene Dolgow’s violin, that is well over 100 years old. Irene Dolgow was a Russian violinist, pedagogue, and composer, who
performed extensively in Russia and Poland and was one of the first female composers played on Polish radio. Recently, a resurgence of scholarly interest in female composers in Central and Eastern Europe’s Soviet era lead to an investigation of her works.