Born in Bucharest, Romania, Maya Badian started to compose at the age of five. She received her principal musical education at the Bucharest Music Academy from which she graduated with a Master’s degree in composition, in 1968. Additional training was taken in Italy and Germany. She obtained a Doctorate in composition, with high distinction, at the Université de Montréal in Montréal, in 1992. She became a naturalized Canadian in 1990. International awards include: the “20th Century Award for Achievement (International Biographical Center, 1998); the “International Woman of the Year” (IBC, 1997); “Who’s Who of the Year” (American Biographical Institute, USA, 1993). She was appointed an Honorary Member of the Advisory Council of the International Biographical Center, Cambridge, England, in 1991. She is an associate composer with the Canadian Music Center and a member of the Canadian League of Composers.
A prolific, distinguished international composer, adjudicator, and teacher, Dr. Maya Badian has
composed more than 80 major original works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, and multi-media. Her compositions are frequently performed in important cities in Canada, USA, and Europe. Dr. Badian is frequently invited in important centers throughout the world to lecture on her compositions, often in collaboration with her husband, Lucian Badian, M. Eng., a music publisher. A strong promoter of Canadian music and arts, she organized the first Canadian Chamber Concert at the International Music Festival in Budapest, Hungary (1992).
She is the first Canadian musicologist to lecture in six university centres in Germany on “Connections between Canadian Music and Painting” (1993) and on “50 Canadian Composers From Sea to Sea” (1994). As an adjudicator, Dr. Badian represented Canada in various international competitions such as the “46th International Competition for Musical Performers” CIEM, Geneva, Switzerland, and the “Béla Bartók International Choir Competition”, Debrecen, Hungary.