A leading scholar and researcher of Latin American art song, mezzo-soprano Maya Hoover is an active performer, teacher, clinician, music education philosopher, and author. Her accomplishments in the performance and teaching arenas have earned her invitations to appear around the world, and her specialty in the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has led her to collaborations with some of today's leading composers.

Ms. Hoover has appeared in recital throughout the United States performing works from the standard repertoire as well as lesser-known works. She enjoys a long-time collaboration with pianist José Meléndez, with whom she has regularly appeared in recitals, concerts, and master classes since their first recital together in 1997. Their unique partnership as a performing and teaching team, coupled with their specialization in Latin American art song, has afforded them invitations to appear throughout the United States and abroad.

Ms. Hoover has performed at international festivals such as Festival Internacional Bach (Peru), Songs Across the Americas Festival (Bolivia), New Operafestival di Roma (Italy), Bellingham Festival of Music (Washington), Bloomington Early Music Festival (Indiana), Festival Mozart y Beethoven (Peru); and in international venues such as Auditorio Fabio Lozano (Bogotá, Colombia), Franz Liszt Academy (Budapest, Hungary), Conservatorio de Música (Puerto Rico), Teatro Municipal (Peru), and Spivey Hall (Georgia). With such roles to her credit as Mimì and Cio-Cio San, she now focuses primarily on the mezzo repertoire. As a mezzo, she has also performed symphonic standards such as Mozart's Requiem and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, as well as more contemporary works such as Osvaldo Golijov's Oceana, which she performed in 2008 with the Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra's Latin American Music Festival.

Ms. Hoover serves on the Advisory Board of the Latin American Art Song Alliance, an organization dedicated to the promotion of songs from South America, Central America, and the Islands of the Caribbean. She is a supporter of new music, and has given mulitple world premieres of both Latin American and North American repertoire. She is also the host and producer of "Great Songs wih Maya Hoover," a weekly radio show devoted entirely to art song, on Hawai`i Public Radio.

Maya Hoover holds a Doctor of Music degree in Voice Performance and Literature with a minor in Music Education from Indiana University, a Master of Music degree from Westminster Choir College, a Bachelor of Music degree with a minor in Italian Language and Literature from Binghamton University. She has studied with Mary Burgess, Laura Brooks Rice, Patricia Havranek, and Virginia Zeani. Her publications have appeared in Classical Singer, The Mentoring Connection, and the Philosophy of Music Education Review, and her book A Guide to the Latin American Art Song Repertoire: An Annotated Catalog of Twentieth-Century Art Songs for Voice and Piano (Indiana University Press) was just released in March of 2010. She has been a part of the distinguished faculty of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa since 2007.