Mariia Stefiuk

Mariia Yuryivna Stefiuk (; born 16 July 1948) is a Ukrainian opera singer and music teacher who has been associated with the National Opera of Ukraine and the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine. She began her career as a trainee singer at the Kyiv Opera and Ballet Theater in 1972, after being accepted into the troupe before being made a soloist two years later. Stefiuk has made recordings of her works and taught at the department of solo singing at the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine since 2000.

She has been awarded the Order of Princess Olga, been honored a People's Artist of Ukraine, a People's Artist of the USSR, and received each of the Lenin Komsomol Prize, the Shevchenko National Prize, the Honorary Diploma of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Order of Friendship. Stefiuk was conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the State in 2008.

Early life Stefiuk was born in the fourteenth house on Boichuka Street in the village of Rozhniv, Kosiv Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast on 16 July 1948. She is the oldest daughter of the salesperson Maria and Yury Stefiuk, and was named after both the Virgin Mary and Mary's mother. Stefiuk was brought up learning Ukrainian songs, and developed her passion for singing, having had her sing on a non-professional basis. Having not received a formal musical education, She has also performed the roles of Maryltsya in Taras Bulba by Mykola Lysenko, the new mermaid On the Water Nymph's Easter by Mykola Leontovych, Milusha in Yaroslav The Wise by Heorhiy Maiboroda, Antonida in A Life for the Tsar by Mikhail Glinka, Violetta and Gilda in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, Rigoletto, Rosina in The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, Musetta in La bohème by Giacomo Puccini, Eurydice in Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck, Marguerite de Valois in Les Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Manon in the opera of the same name by Jules Massenet, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti, Leila in Les pêcheurs de perles by Georges Bizet, A Girl in Into the Storm by Tikhon Khrennikov, Katerina Lvovna Izmailova in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Dmitri Shostakovich, Dunyasha in The Quiet Don by Ivan Dzerzhinsky, Zerlina in Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Parasya in The Fair at Sorochyntsi by Modest Mussorgsky. Stefiuk became a member of the Supervisory Board of the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre in 2009, That same month, Stefiuk was appointed to the Order of Princess Olga, 3rd Class "For a significant personal contribution to the development of culture and art of Ukraine". She was upgraded to the Order of Princess Olga, 2nd Class in September 2001 "For a significant personal contribution to the development of Ukrainian opera and ballet art, high professionalism".

In January 2003, she was awarded the Order of Friendship by Russian president Vladimir Putin "for a great contribution to the development of art and the strengthening of Russian-Ukrainian cultural ties." In the same year, Stefiuk was upgraded to the Order of Princess Olga, 1st Class "For a significant personal contribution to the development of Ukrainian culture and art, many years of creative activity and high performance skills". She was conferred the title of Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the State by Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko in July 2008 "For a significant personal contribution to the development of Ukrainian culture and art, significant creative achievements and on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the founding of the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater".