Maria starting singing before she could talk.  Her early years were immersed in music. She and her sister watched musicals every day and when sent outside, their singing would echo through the neighborhood. An eight-year-old Maria stunned her first audience in the darkened elementary school gym with her performance of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. Growing up she studied voice with the Royal Conservatory of Music and performed in many musicals at the Oshawa Little Theatre. As a teenager you would often find her in her room with a guitar learning the classics and starting to write her own songs. After high school she studied voice and drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan. She is inspired by all genres of music. Her major influences are Jewel, Joni Mitchell and Shania Twain, as well as Julie Andrews and Judy Garland.