MUSE • Musicians United for Social Equity

is a lifelong lyricist, writer, and performer from Phoenix, Arizona, whose work has been featured in cabarets such as Feinstein’s 54 Below Work in Progress series and Chicago Clock Productions’ Black Joy Festival. She received her BFA in musical theatre from AMDA College of the Performing Arts in May 2020. During the Creating Your Vision workshop at AMDA, she wrote her first musical, Dome 483, which led to her pursue her masters in musical theater writing at NYU Tisch. Maria is a proud member of the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program’s Cycle 31. Since graduating, she and her thesis partner, Anna Marcus Hecht, produced a staged reading of their musical, MACHA, as part of Spark Theatre’s New Work Series. Along with her GMTWP thesis, she began working on an album exploring religious trauma and self love, and released the first 3 songs as “ain’t no angel vol. i” under her artist persona, malizabeth. This inspired her to continue learning the art of music production, earning her certificate in Music Industry Essentials from Billboard x Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in May 2023. She continues to release new music every month!