• Prize-winner at the International Competition Competizione dell’Opera (Uzbekistan, 2014, 3rd prize)
• Prize-winner at the All-Russian Shebalin Young Vocalists’ Competition (Omsk, 2012, 1 st prize)
• Prize-winner at the International Nadezhda Obukhova Young Opera Singers’ Competition (Lipetsk, 2012)
• Prize-winner at the International Young Opera Singers’ Competition in Memory of Maxim Mikhailov (Cheboksary, 2010, 3rd prize)
Maria Bayankina graduated with distinction from the vocals faculty of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow (class of Evgenia Sheveleva).
From 2007 she was a leading soloist with the Petit Opera creative group, where she performed lead roles in operas by Henry Purcell. In 2011 she became a grant-recipient of the Wagner Prize. Since 2010 she has been a soloist with the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers.
In February 2013, Maria Bayankina made her debut at the Mariinsky Theatre as Tsaritsa Militrisa in The Tale of Tsar Saltan, then as Violetta in La Traviata under Valery Gergiev.
Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre includes:
Kuma (The Enchantress)
Tsaritsa Militrisa (The Tale of Tsar Saltan)
Violetta (La Traviata)
Tatiana (Eugene Onegin)
Kupava (The Snow Maiden)
Corinna (Il Viaggio a Reims)
Liza Brichkina (The Dawns Here Are Quiet in concert)
Dunyasha (The Station Master)
Countess Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro)
The Ugly Duckling by Prokofiev
Rusalka (Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák)
Nastassya Filippovna (The Idiot)
Mariana (The Cossacks in concert)
Donna Anna (The Stone Guest in concert)
Volkhova (Sadko)
Elektra (Oresteia in concert)
Imogene (Il pirata in concert)
Under the direction of Larisa Gergieva she has appeared in concerts at leading European venues in Milan, Rome, Bari, Stockholm, Venice (Teatro La Fenice), Vienna (Odeon Theater), Saint-Tropez, Cannes and London (Wigmore Hall) among other cities.
In the 2015/2016 season, she sang the main part in the premiere of Mieczysław Weinberg’s The Idiot at the Mariinsky Theatre. Last season she took part in David Pountney’s production of the opera The Enchantress with the soloists of the Academy at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples where she once again performed the main part – that of Nastasya.
The singer regularly takes part in the Moscow Easter Festival, the Stars of the White Nights festival, Denis Matsuev’s festivals Stars on Baikal, Crescendo and Denis Matsuev & Friends.