Music Director

Founder of SoCAL Chorale

Marya Basaraba

Marya Basaraba leads SoCAL Chorale with artistic passion, creative vision, and a deep commitment to bringing communities together through exceptional choral performances and inspiring musical experiences. Her leadership continues to shape memorable concerts that celebrate harmony, culture, and the transformative power of music.

Walt Disney Concert Hall Performances

California Philharmonic

Golden State Pops Orchestra

Founder of SoCAL Chorale

Performed before audiences of 25,000+

Concert Videos

Performance Archive

BIOGRAPHY

Conducting & Choral Leadership

Canadian soprano and choral director, Marya Basaraba will present a 140 voice chorus in June, 2026 for a performance of Americana, ‘The Sound of Unity’ at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Heart of Los Angeles Eisner Intergenerational Orchestra and Maestro Daniel Suk.

As the Resident Chorus Maestra of the California Philharmonic for thirteen years and with the Golden State Pops Orchestra for ten seasons she delivered choruses for dozens of concerts with up to 220 singers for performances of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony Ode to Joy and Morricone’s ionic score of The Mission.

For the GSPO she created elite choruses for the annual Holiday Spectacular concerts and for several Varese Sarabande/GSPO collaborations including the West Coast premiere of Christmas Carol by film composer, Bernard Herrmann and at UCLA’s Royce Hall to celebrate artist, Drew Struzan with remote appearances by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

Opera & Symphony Career

Marya was the Chorus Maestra and mezzo soloist for the Redlands Bowl Festival Opera with Music Director/Conductor Frank Paul Fetta and Stage Director, Louis Lebherz for Tosca, Madama Butterfly (Suzuki), Magic Flute (Second Lady), The Mikado (Katisha) and La Traviata (Flora) with international opera star, Juliana di Giaccomo.

As the Associate Artistic Director and Chorus Maestra of the El Dorado Opera she delivered elite choruses for productions of I Pagliacci, Hansel and Gretel and Don Giovanni at the historic El Portal Theater in North Hollywood.

Her choruses have performed to audiences of over 5,000 people each at the Los Angeles Arboretum, Santa Anita Race Track and the Redlands Bowl and, also at the historic Warner Grand Theater, Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Broad Theater and for over thirty concerts with the Cal Phil at the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall.

In 2019, she created the SoCAL Chorale, a professionally led freelance chorus performing with various orchestral ensembles including the LA Film Orchestra in a Tribute to Basil Poledouris at WDCH; a Tribute to Elmer Bernstein for Stanny Productions at the Gene Autry Museum and the West Coast Wind Symphony Beethoven Ninth.

Since 2019 the SCCh has been the Resident Chorus of the Marina del Rey Summer Symphony/Culver City Symphony Orchestras at Burton Chace Park and the Veterans Memorial Auditorium with conductors, Frank Fetta, Maxim Kuzin, Steven Allen Fox and Clyde Mitchell.

Community Outreach & SoCAL Chorale

Marya is the Director of Music Ministries at Grace Lutheran Church and, for 18 years, was the Choir Director at Temple Akiba, both in Culver City.

In collaboration with the Grace Performing Arts Ministry, she created the community outreach music series, MidDAY At Grace presenting more than sixty noon hour concerts with professional vocal and instrumental artists.

In 2019 she developed OPERA At GRACE featuring local companies, Landmark, Guild and Mission Opera in highlights of opera favorites, including La Traviata, Amahl and the Night Visitors, La Boheme and Gianni Schicchi.

Initially, the artists chose a designated charity to receive the donations collected at their concerts and, since December, 2018 more than 1800 people have attended these programs and approximately $10,000 has been raised for a wide variety of non profit organizations including Grace Diner. Since the Pandemic, the Donations have benefited the Diner, the premier food sharing program on the West Side serving 900 hot meals and distributing up to three thousand pounds of fresh produce and baked and dairy goods each week.

Broadcasting & Television

In Montreal Marya studied piano, voice and choral and orchestral conducting at McGill University with Wayne Riddell and Alexander Brott. As a Union des Artistes member she sang with L’Opera de Montreal and the Montreal Symphony and was a Founding Member and soloist of Le Studio Ancienne de Montreal, the premiere Early Music ensemble in Canada.

As a member of Canadian actors Equity she starred in cabaret and musical theater including at the acclaimed regional venue, the Centaur Theater in an innovative production of Kurt Weill’s Happy End, conceived by the renowned German puppeteer, Felix Mirbt.

Under the Union jurisdiction of ACTRA she had an extensive career in film, television and radio as an openline host/producer, conducting more that 1,000 interviews with a wide range of high profile guests including Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr, Eartha Kitt, Michael York, Marty Feldman, Charles Dutoit, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Kenny Loggins.

She acted as the remote host in Montreal for Arts National the three hour nightly radio broadcast, sharing her commentary with the country wide listening audience of concerts featuring such artists as international stars, Kathleen Battle, James Galway and Neville Marriner, conductor of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Ms Basaraba’s eclectic career included a successful term as an actor and broadcaster in Canada which brought her to Los Angeles. For several years, she commuted to Toronto and Montreal from LA for contracts in television and film, acting as the studio host for Welcome to My World, a Disney syndicated program for young people and, for the New York based Nicholson/Muir production of the popular TV gameshow, Super Pay Cards, she was the Canadian cohost to wellknown star, Art James and syndicated in the US on Metromedia and for ten years across Canada.

She portrayed the role of Judy Mercier on the most successful night time drama ever produced for French Radio Canada television as Lance et Compte and, syndicated across Canada and the USA as He Shoots, He Scores.

The series was eventually coproduced by Swiss television where her character was developed as an international opera star in Europe appearing on the opera stage of Le Grand Theatre de Geneve! Another career highlight was being cast opposite Bernadette Peters in Tulips and in Agnes of God by director, Norman Jewison as best friend to Jane Fonda!

Education & Mentorship

When she relocated to LA she continued vocal studies in earnest which rekindled a return to music full time as an opera and symphony soloist. She was a guest singer at the Opera Studios at Cal State Long Beach and University of Southern California where she acted as Assistant Director to Frans Boerlage and collaborated with conductor Lucas Richman on a touring production of Cosi fan Tutte.

An accomplished operatic, symphonic and oratorio soloist, she has performed with the California Philharmonic and the San Diego, Culver City, Marina del Rey, Torrance, Antelope Valley, Newfoundland, Victoria, Texas, LA Doctors and Vancouver West Coast Symphonies. Her solo oratorio repertoire includes the Mozart, Durufle, Faure and Verdi Requiems, the Petite Solonelle Messe by Puccini and the soprano and mezzo roles in Handel’s Messiah.

She sang equally as a spinto soprano and mezzo in the Mozart roles of the Countess, Donna Anna and Fiordiligi, Puccini’s Tosca, Mimi, Musetta, Madama Butterfly and Suzuki, as Bizet’s Carmen and Micaela, as Santuzza in Caveleria Rusticana, the Verdi heroines, Aida, Amelia, Violetta and Flora along with the Mother’s in Albert Herring, Hansel and Gretel and Amahl and the Night Vistors.

She received standing ovations from the audience of 25,000 people at the opening of the GM Place in Vancouver, Canada with the Vancouver Symphony replacing international superstar Sarah Brightman in a program of Canadian superstars including Shania Twain. She appeared at the Embarcadero Marina Park South, the summer venue of the San Diego Symphony with conductor Murry Sidlin in multiple programs of Puccini and Verdi arias and popular songs by Gershwin and Cole Porter. As Maestro Sidlin reported, there were many marvelous Miss America stars considered, but none could successfully deliver this early combined ‘crossover’ repertoire!

Marya was the Founder and Principal Soprano of the Nevada State Opera producing innovative performances to the Desert communities of Carmen, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, Tosca, Don Giovanni and La Traviata.

Marya taught Vocal Studies in the Extension Department of Concordia University in Montreal and is a Private Voice Coach in Pasadena and Culver City where she has worked with exceptionally talented young people at the Los Angeles County High School of the Arts on the campus of Cal State LA, and the Culver City and Huntington Beach HS’s Academies of Visual and Performing Arts.

Her students have gone on to the Music Performance and Theater Departments of Occidental College, UCLA, USC, Cal State Long Beach and Northridge, Yale, Chapman, Indiana, Arizona and New York Universities, the Musicians Institute and the Boston, Oberlin and San Francisco Conservatories.

She has also been the Vocal Consultant for the Cal Phil, GSPO and Culver City and Marina del Rey Symphonies and a mentor to many local vocal artists, including the Tenor of the Americas, Maximo Marcuso. She is on the Board of Directors of the Culver City Symphony Orchestra and on the Committee of the Parness Concerto Competition. She has served on the Adjudicating Panels for various instrumental and vocal competitions including as the Head Judge for ten years for the Dan Stover Competition on behalf of the Altadena Rotary Club.

After several decades as a vocal soloist, musician, actor, broadcaster and entertainer, Marya is now dedicated to her role as coach, conductor and mentor to hundreds of singers of all ages in memory of those who mentored her from a very young age and who opened doors to an astonishing performance world!