Maria Zlateva was director of theory and string and orchestra activities at Walla Walla College, now University, from 2001 to 2003. A native of Bulgaria, she was born in Stara Zagora, the daughter of Ljuba Dimitorva and Zlati Ivanov Zlatev. She is a 1992 B.Mus.Ed. graduate of the Academia of Music and Dance in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She received a performer’s certificate in 1998 from La Sierra University and an M.Mus. from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas in 2000.

An accomplished violinist, Zlateva has served as principal player or in concertmaster positions in several orchestras in Europe and the United States, including the Amadeus Orchestra in London, and the Pazardjik Symphony and Plovdiv State Philharmonic in Bulgaria. She won first prize in the Annual Concerto Competition at LSU in 1998 and received the Graduate Honor’s String Quartet scholarship at the California State University in Northridge in 1998 and the Grace Buell Music Memorial scholarship at LSU in 1997 and 1998.