biography

Born in Minsk, flautist Maruta Staravoitava currently resides in Geneva and Cologne. Her musical tastes range from Baroque to contemporary music, where she particularly enjoys working directly with living composers. She is a proud member of the Syntax ensemble, Castel Camerata, Kommas ensemble and the EXPERIMENTAL Ensemble. 
She has also performed in numerous ensembles, such as Contrechamps in Geneva, Ensemble Contempoarte in Florence, Ensemble Musikfabrik and Ensemble Garage in Cologne, and the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome. She has collaborated with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Antonio Pappano, Beat Furrer and Jonathan Nott.
In 2010, as a member of Lucerne Festival Academy, performed, among other works, Pierro Lunaire of Schoenberg under the direction of Pierre Boulez. In 2016 she participated in the production of the opera Prometeo by Luigi Nono at the Lucerne Theater under the direction of Clemens Heil.
Maruta performs as a soloist and chamber musician frequently in festivals such as Wien Modern, Warsaw Autumn, Lucerne Festival, Davos Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Borealis Festival, Tage der Neue Musik Graz, Salzburg Biennale and in the concert season for young artists at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.
An active teacher and animateur, Maruta has delivered many flute and composition masterclasses at the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts (Minsk), the University of the Philippines College of Music (Manila, Phillipines), the Center for the Electroacoustic Music at Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Russia) and at the School for Music and Fine Arts in Paraná (Brazil).

Maruta’s concerts have been broadcast on Radio Poland, Sud Westdeutsche Rundfunk and The Bavarian Radio. She has also appeared on the records Folk Songs (2014) with the EXPERIMENTAL Ensemble at the Experimental Studio of SWR Freiburg; Lo spazio apparente (2013) with the composer Maurilio Cacciatore; and Fremde Zet addendum with the ensemble MOCKBA.

Maruta began studying flute and piano at the National Arts Academy at seven with Svetlana Sitnikova. At seventeen, Maruta won an academic place at the Conservatoire Nationale in Strasbourg (France) with Mario Caroli, earning an Advanced Diploma and the interregional prize with Honours. She then continued her studies with Felix Renggli at Hochschule für Musik in Basel. Her profound interest in diverse forms of musical expression led Maruta to the Bern University of the Arts, where she completed her Masters in Music Theatre under Françoise Rivalland.
 
During her studies, Maruta was a bursary recipient of the Fondation Nicati de Luze in Lausanne; and was awarded by the Foundation Severino Gazzelloni (Florence) for her performance of the work Donax by Italian composer Ivan Fedele. Additionally, she was awarded the unanimous first prize of the UFAM competition (Versailles), the third prize at the Parnasse competition (Paris) and the second prize at the Eugen Coca competition (Chisinau).