MARIA MATALAEV is an award-winning translator, concert pianist, and literary scholar based in Paris, France. She is a co-founder and core faculty member of the Paris Institute for Critical Thinking (PICT).
Maria’s translations have tackled a range of fields from history to politics to literature. Her 2015 book, Valentin Berlinsky: Le quatuor d’une vie (Aedam Musicae), was awarded the “Prix du Témoignage” at the 2016 Prix des Muses. Translated into English as Valentin Berlinsky: A Quartet for Life (Kahn & Averill), the book was included by BBC Music Magazine in its 2019 list of Best Classical Music Book Releases.
Maria’s translation and writing projects include L’urbanisme informel : au-delà du droit à la ville by Jean-Jacques Perrin and Ina Wagner (Presses des Ponts, 2023), Daughter of the Revolution by Vera Broido (Allia, February 2025), Ojo Vulgar (El Circulo, ongoing), The Veil of Depiction (PICT Books, forthcoming), as well as a new abridged version of Anna Karenina (Belin, forthcoming) and educational collections. A native speaker of Russian and French, Maria translates from and into both languages as well as English and Spanish.
Maria has also worked on script translations for a number of films, including Amparo by Simón Mesa Soto, winner of the 2021 Rising Star Award at the Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival and the 2021 Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, and Tantas Almas by Nicolás Rincón Gille, winner of the 2020 German Camera Award and the 2019 Etoile d’Or for Best Film at the Marrakech International Film Festival.
An award-winning concert pianist, Maria started performing with orchestras at age 15 and has since performed as a soloist or chamber musician in various countries, including at the Wigmore Hall (London), the Gaveau and Cortot Halls (Paris), and the Great and Small Halls of the Moscow Conservatory.
Beyond translating and performing, Maria has worked as an exhibition curator (“The Music of a Lifetime,” devoted to Valentin Berlinsky), production manager for musicians and ensembles such as the Secession Orchestra, and professeur certifié, teaching modern literature in and around Paris.
Maria is the Managing Director of PICT, a position she has held since co-founding the institute in 2018. She has been a driving force behind the institute’s activities, from establishing PICT as a non-profit association registered with the French state to spearheading the French PICT initiative, through which she curates and edits the Francophone content of PICT. Maria serves as Secretary General on the PICT association board.
To find out more about Maria, check out her:
PICT Courses
PICT Public Lectures
PICT Articles
- Cadavres Exquis 2024 (The Faculty Lounge)
- Le jour où mon mari fut emprisonné par les Talibans (French PICT)
- Le Quatuor Borodine en tournée (French PICT)
- L’esprit Gezi : La possibilité d’une impossibilité (French PICT)
- The Borodin Quartet on Tour (The Faculty Lounge)