About Maria
One of today’s most distinguished continuo players, Maria Shabashova has built a multifaceted international career that has brought her to many of Europe’s leading festivals, concert halls, and opera houses. She performs both as a soloist and as a basso continuo specialist, appearing on a range of historical keyboard instruments with prominent baroque, chamber, and symphony orchestras across Europe.
Celebrated for uniting consummate technique with exceptional sensitivity and depth, she is particularly admired for the expressive vitality of her improvisations — described as “imaginative, poetic, lively” (Markus Hinterhäuser, Artistic Director of the Salzburg Festival).
Her first international appearance took place at the Salzburg Festival in 2017 in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, performed by MusicAeterna under Teodor Currentzis in a staging by Peter Sellars. Since then, she has appeared at the Festival annually, contributing to landmark productions including Mozart’s Idomeneo (2019, Toedor Currentzis & Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Peter Sellars), Don Giovanni (2021 and 2024, Teodor Currentzis, Romeo Castellucci), and Rameau’s Castor et Pollux (2025, Teodor Currentzis, Peter Sellars).
As assistant and harpsichordist, she has collaborated with conductors such as Marc Minkowski, Giovanni Antonini, Francesco Corti, Maxim Emelyanychev, Andrea Marcon, and Christopher Moulds. Since 2024, she has been working with Cecilia Bartoli’s orchestra, Les Musiciens du Prince - Monaco.
Maria maintains close artistic relationships with ensembles including Il Pomo d’Oro, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, MusicAeterna, Utopia, Kammerorchester Basel, and has worked at major opera houses such as Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Berlin), Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), Opéra Garnier (Paris), and Dutch National Opera & Ballet (Amsterdam).
Her discography includes The Complete Da Ponte Trilogy (Royal Opera of the Château de Versailles, conducted by Marc Minkowski with Les Musiciens du Louvre), Handel’s Alcina (Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre), and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Joyce DiDonato, Il Pomo d’Oro, and Maxim Emelyanychev).
Since 2022, she has served as Senior Lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and since 2023 she has also served as Senior Lecturer at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, where she teaches historical keyboard instruments and continuo performance practice.
Maria Shabashova began her musical education at the age of five. In 2012, she graduated from the P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where she specialized in harpsichord (Olga Filippova), fortepiano (Yury Martynov), and piano (Sergey Glavatskikh). She later refined her artistry at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, earning two Master’s degrees: in 2014, a Master of Arts in Specialized Music Performance (harpsichord), and in 2017, a Master of Arts in Thoroughbass and Ensemble Conducting under Jörg-Andreas Bötticher (harpsichord, thoroughbass) and Andrea Marcon (ensemble conducting).