Maira Liliestedt was a prizewinner in numerous student competitions in her native Romania before moving to the United States in 1992. Liliestedt received a Bachelor of Music in piano from Bowling Green State University and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where she studied with Eugene and Elisabeth Pridonoff.
A professor emeritus of music at the University of Mount Union, Liliestedt previously taught at Northern Kentucky University, the College of Mount Saint Joseph, and in the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music's evening program. She is an active adjudicator for festivals and competitions, has been published in Clavier magazine and has served as panelist and presenter for the GP3: Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy conference. She has presented at local, district, and state conferences including the Ohio MTA and Texas MTA conventions and has served in officer positions for local and district chapters of Music Teachers' National Association. Liliestedt also served on the planning committee for the 2016 Ohio Music Teachers' Association State Conference. Her professional experience also includes masterclasses and chamber music coaching with James Tocco and Emanuel Ax.
Since 1996, she has been a member of the Appassionata Piano Duo, a successful musical partnership with pianist Janelle Phinney. Arts critic Tom Wachunas described the duo's playing as "a warm and deft joining of palpable grace with flawless, often fiery technique," displaying a "riveting, lucid finesse alternately muscular and delicate." The ensemble has garnered praise for its "wonderful ensemble, balance, and unity of purpose," and its "terrific collaboration full of grace and passion." (Eugene and Elisabeth Pridonoff, Professors Emeriti, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music). In addition to numerous academic awards, Liliestedt has twice been the recipient of the prestigious Presser Music Award.
As a pianist, Liliestedt has been a prizewinner in solo piano and collaborative competitions at the high school, collegiate, and graduate levels, and maintains a regular schedule of solo, chamber, and concerto performances. Her interpretations of the Liszt First Piano Concerto were received enthusiastically; in conductor Eric Benjamin's words: "hearing Maira Liliestedt play [this concerto] is like watching an Indy race driver take the car out for a spin." Liliestedt's performances in the Midwest and abroad in recent seasons have included solo and violin/piano recitals with violinists Bohdan Subchak and Emily Cornelius as well as duo and solo concerto performances, featuring pieces such as Bach's B-flat Major Partita and the Liszt B Minor Sonata, Chopin's First Concerto, Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto, Saint-Saëns's Second Piano Concerto and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Brahms's complete Hungarian Dances, Schubert's F Minor Fantasy for piano four hands as well as vocal/piano collaboration with Laura Mason.
An active pedagogue, Liliestedt maintains a growing studio, Keys to Artistry, which has expanded offerings in music history, theory, and repertoire in addition to piano lessons, and offers multiple performance opportunities for its students. 2024-2025 has brought about the debut of the Keys to Artistry Concert Series, consisting of an array of professional and advanced student concerts in the tradition of the nineteenth-century's Schubertiades, hosted in an intimate house setting. More information at www.keystoartistry.com. Her first published book was released in February 2025 by Innovative Ink Publishing, a division of Kendall Hunt Publishing Company: Piano TEACHeR: Teaching through Emotional Awareness, Content, and Human Relationships.
