Maria Kurochkina

Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Orchestras

Maria Kurochkina is a conductor and educator whose work spans opera and symphonic repertoire. She is joining the faculty of Northern Illinois University in August 2025 as assistant professor of music and director of orchestral activities.

Kurochkina holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from Boston University, where she studied with James Burton and William Lumpkin and received a full merit scholarship. Her doctoral dissertation, Preserving Tchaikovsky’s Legacy: A Translation and Critical Commentary on Kirill Kondrashin’s Interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Symphonies, reflects her research interests in interpretation, Soviet performance traditions and the challenges of translation in specialized musical contexts. She also earned a Specialist Degree (equivalent to a combined bachelor's and master's) from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she studied with Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Igor Dronov.

Her operatic work includes conducting full productions of The Consul (Chicago Summer Opera, 2024), Alice Tierney (Boston Fringe Festival, 2023), and Gianni Schicchi (Boston University Opera Institute, 2025), as well as leading the world premiere of R. Yunusov’s chamber opera Steps as music director and conductor at the Diaghilev Festival. She has also assisted at the Moscow Conservatory Opera Theatre and worked with orchestras including the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia under Vladimir Jurowski.

Kurochkina has participated in masterclasses and fellowships across Europe and the United States, including the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Diaghilev Festival and sessions with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Marin Alsop, Teodor Currentzis, and others. She was a participant in the La Maestra Conducting Competition (Paris, 2022) and the Cantelli Award (Milan, 2024). She maintains a strong interest in contemporary music, education and intercultural collaboration.